


Share This Precious Life (With Me)

by Yuhime



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Brotherhood verse, Eventual Smut, F/M, Fluff, Mentions of Suicide, Not Beta Read, Post-Journey, Pre-Journey, Slow Burn, Swearing, Tags may change as story progresses, Violence, canon-divergant, not sure how to tag lol how do, spoilers for the most part, we die like men
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-03
Updated: 2018-02-14
Packaged: 2018-12-10 12:58:01
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 48,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11692110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yuhime/pseuds/Yuhime
Summary: Childhood friends going about life down two different paths. One that will lead to destruction, the other will save the world and bring back the light.But it didn't matter, not to Mios. She wasn't scared at all because she always knew she would die protecting her prince.





	1. The Parents' Day Incident

A new student.

Fresh meat.

Something to play with.

That's how most of the students viewed her as, despite being nothing but a regular person like the rest of them. She was a regular person who moved from Altissia to Insomnia, who had an older brother who cares and loves her deeply, who had parents who traveled far and wide for work and had passed away. A regular person trying her best despite her circumstances. Except, she wasn't a regular person.

Monster!

Witch!

Outcast!

Those were her new labels after she had accidentally unleashed her powers on a poor, unsuspecting classmate, striking them with a quick bolt of lightning. They were never a problem before and they would never be a problem again. She was just a special case, a child born with powers that were beyond mortal capabilities, powers reserved for the Royal Family and those chosen by them. But it wasn’t as rare as she thought, as she had been told of others who also happen to be in the same situation as her.

The world wasn’t as lonely anymore and yet it still was for a monster like her.  

Why use these labels though? Why did she have to be called such horrible names when all she wanted was for her classmates to call her Mios.

One student did. He was the only one to ever say her name with no fear, no disdain.

"Good morning, Mios."

She looks up and stares, wide eyed at the other before shyly returning his greeting.

"Good Morning, Noctis."

Noctis Lucis Caelum, a classmate of hers that she dares not treat as a prince. He was a young school kid just like her. No royal treatment, sucking up, anything like that from her so long as she lives because she only ever viewed him as equal to her.

Social status? Money? Power? Who wanted that?

That one little interaction with the Prince though, became a turning point in her life out of nowhere. Suddenly, a few of her classmates came up to her and began regularly greeting her and she welcomed the change, preferring being involved with her classmates rather than being outcasted.

It was then she became friends with three girls a year older than her: Viola, Rayn, and Niella. They had invited her to sit with them during lunch one day, noticing how her classmates had actively ostracized her from them, thus taking pity on her and offering the new girl some sort of company.

School became less difficult and more of a joy in her life and she loves it.

The black-haired girl would walk into class and exchange greetings with Noctis and a few of her classmates. During lunch, she would sit with her three, older friends, listening to them complain or laugh or sometimes just play a game of hide and seek out in the forest near the school without getting into trouble. After school, she walks to the junior and high school building nearby and wait for her big brother, Luto, who always rushes over and scoops her up onto his shoulder as they walked home, greeted by their aunt and guardian.

Mios' life wasn't exciting or special, but it was simple and perfect. Fewer and fewer classmates were becoming wary of her and actually accepting her again. She thought her life was looking up again until Parent Day was upon them and her life changed once more.

"Miooo~" Luto calls, shaking her shoulder to rouse her awake. She groans but sits up, nonetheless, not wanting to cause any trouble by being late to school. She looks over at her brother, wiping the sleep and crud away from her eyes as she leans forward, silently asking for a morning kiss on the forehead that he gives her every morning. The young man smiles lovingly at her and complies, placing a chaste kiss on her forehead. He ruffles her hair and pats her on the back, trying to get her out of bed.

"C'mon, little sis. Aunt Thalassius has breakfast ready so we better eat before it gets cold."

She nods and hops out of bed, being guided to the bathroom to get ready for the day as Luto goes into the kitchen to help his aunt. Soon, Mios is ready for school and sitting at the dining table with her family. Usually, she would be smiling and bubblier than ever, excited to see her friends or talking about a new friend she made. But today, Mios was quiet, near the verge of tears and barely eating the food on her plate. Luto and Thalassius give each other anxious looks before glancing over at the younger girl.

"Mios, dear... is everything alright? You're barely eating today. You know, breakfast is the most important meal of the day."

Mios nods along, seemingly hearing her aunt but not really registering the words she is saying. The girl sighs, a quiver evident in her voice as she lays the fork down and decides to confide in them. After all, they are her only family.

* _Family._ *

"Today...Today is Parent Day. All the kids at school are bringing their parents so they won't have time to come play with me... Auntie, I know you have the shop and big brother has school too so...it'll be lonely."

The air around them turns sullen as the reality of the situation hits hard. Nobody said this would be easy, nobody said this would be the best situation ever. It was hard on all of them but they were trying their hardest to make it work for them. Mios knew that, Luto knew that, even Thalassius knew that.

"Mios... I'm...Im sorry things are hard... I..." Thalassius tears up for a moment, but chokes it out anyway. "I miss my sister everyday. But your parents always believed in following their dreams and calling and they knew of the danger they were in. But no matter what, I promise you, they never meant to leave you willingly. Going to Tenebrae was the hardest decision they had to make and I promise, they loved you, the both of you, with all their hearts. So just remember that ok? When you're at school and see the other parents, just remember that they are with you every day, right here." Thalassius tells her niece, pointing at her heart and Mios, tears in her eyes, nods and tries her best to smile because her aunt was right. Her parents were with her everyday so long as she had this necklace that they had given her before leaving and kept their memory close to her heart.

The situation was hard on all of them, Thalassius running a small boutique, being a single guardian, and raising her sister’s children was taxing in the beginning. At the age of 29, she was raising two children in a small, two-bedroom apartment in a not-entirely-safe part of town. But it was their only home now and no matter what, they had to make this situation work for them.

They wave goodbye to their aunt as the two siblings head their way towards school, Luto carrying Mios on his shoulders like he does every day. The walk isn’t too long as luckily, the school is relatively close. When Luto drops her off at school, she holds her brother longer than usual, knowing that even though he doesn't say or show anything, he needed to be comforted too as it would also be a hard day for him. Parents wouldn't be at the junior and high school building he went to but talk of going out and being with their parent would hurt just as much.

 

When Mios got to school, she tries her best to remain upbeat, despite seeing the parents of her classmates around her. They were being shown their child's art piece or their desk and all these sorts of things and the parents wore huge, proud smiles. It hurt so bad to see all of this but Mios only clutches the locket tight as she made her way to her class. She could hear some of the others muttering to each other about the kids who didn't bring parents to school today.

"Their parents didn't love them enough, that's why."

"They probably hate their parents."

"No wonder. I don't like them, I bet their parents don't like them either."

"Bad kid at home."

She hears it all and it's hard to concentrate when they keep glancing her way. Sure, she isn't the only one who didn't bring their parents or have parents to bring but the fact that a majority of the students did bring their parents only ostracized her more.

When lecture is done for the morning and the kids are allowed to go and have lunch with their parents instead of doing cleaning duties, Mios decides to just walk by herself and find a quiet corner of the courtyard where she can sit, to which she does and tries to even her breathing, not wanting to cry.

"Hey, I hear that Prince didn't bring his parent."

"The King is really busy, you know. Maybe he can't come."

"Nah, My dad works at the place the King lives and told me that the king and Prince don't hang out at all. He just buys all the toys for him and leaves him alone."

"I hate that Prince. He's so spoiled and doesn't have to worry about homework. I bet he has servants that do it for him."

"He's so popular and he's so mean to all the girls too. What a brat. I hate him."

Mios had enough listening but she tries to contain herself, not wanting to cause a scene.

"The king's getting old. My dad said if the king died, the Prince won't notice, just playing with all of his toys and servants."

She snaps.

"Hey!" She shouts, jumping out of her hiding spot. The three boys she had inadvertently been listening in on yell with surprise at being caught but then laugh with relief as it was just Mios.

"Oh, it's just a stupid girl. You a fangirl of that dumb prince?" One of the boys retort, to which she clicks her tongue sith annoyance, clenching her fists tightly.

"You shouldn't say things like that at all! They're mean, you big bullies!" She tries to yell at them but they only laugh in her face.

"And what are you gonna do about it? You're just a girl!" One of the boys taunts and he stands upright, trying to intimidate her despite only being a few centimeters taller than her. "I'm a boy and way stronger than you!" He pushes her back at that, trying to show dominance over the situation.

She stands her ground though and punches him square in the nose, sending him back. She doesn't know why she became so angry, she just is. No, that's a lie. She knows why she's angry.

It was because they were picking on a kid just because of the situation he was born in. It wasn't fair for Noctis and it certainly didn't give them the right to talk about him the way they do and expect no consequences. He was a regular kid like her, born into a loving family, had gone through so much, and was still kind. He wasn't pompous in the slightest as far as she could tell. He was just a regular kid just trying to get by.

That's why.

"Yeah, I'm a girl and know how to fight! Now you leave Prince Noctis alone! He's just a little kid too!"

The boy holds his bleeding nose, about to cry which sets off his two friends, who try to fight her as well but she has the advantage, the upper hand as she and Luto were in self-defense classes together. She knocks them all down to the ground, bruised herself as they manage to land a couple hits on her as well. But nonetheless, she comes out as victor as they stand on wobbly legs and two of the three boys run away, scared and crying. The first boy with dried blood on his face glares at her awfully and points a dirty finger in her face.

"No wonder your parents hate you!"

Her angry demeanor disappears in an instant and she quickly becomes sullen, quiet, as the boy runs away. Alone once more, Mios drops to her knees, panting heavily as she throbs all over from the pain. But she doesn't cry, only feeling numb inside.

He was wrong. No parent would ever hate their child. If they did, they can easily do something about it. Her parents would never hate her. With what little memories she has of her parents, they would always tell her that they loved her. He was wrong, so wrong. And yet...them dying...leaving her and her brother alone... The dark, selfish part of her thoughts truly believed his words for a moment.

"You...you ok?"

Mios is startled out of her adrenaline-induced stupor to look up at the voice, belonging to Prince Noctis, hands in his pockets as he stands before her. His posture gives him a cool demeanor but his face holds a substantial amount of worry for her wellbeing. He gets on one knee before her, pulling out a napkin he has in his pocket and wipes away the grime and dirt on her cheek. Mios stares at him and gives a small nod, watching as he pulls out a potion from his pocket and breaking it above her head, healing her of her wounds and aches.

"Th...Thank you."

"Yeah, but...you shouldn't have fought them. It was about me, not you. You didn't have to get yourself hurt like that for someone you don't know." It almost sounds like he's reprimanding her but she doesn't become angry with that. What does make her slowly rise to anger is the fact that he didn't care.

"Those kids were talking about you in a really mean way! I can't just stand there and do nothing when all you are is just a regular kid too! You didn't choose to be a prince!" She yells.

"I can handle whatever they're saying. It's about me and I don't care what they say about me."

"Well I do!"

"Why!?"

"Because you're just a kid, Noctis!"

Silence falls between the two and she is calm again, quiet and upset about something she wasn't even involved in. Mios just...hates injustice. At such a young age, she had to learn how to defend herself and know the difference between right and wrong and know when to stand up for what she believed was right. She wasn't going to start being a bystander now.

"It's not fair...You're just a kid like me and the others...Yeah, you're a prince, but you're a kid too...and if someone didn't do something about it, then they would only get worse....teaches them a lesson to be careful what they say, that's for sure."

Noctis is stunned by this, never having encountered another person who only viewed him as an equal and not just a Prince. She isn't saying this just to get on his good side like the student body and even faculty does, but rather saying this because she truly saw him for what he wanted to be, a regular kid.

Noctis sighs and stands, offering a hand to her to help her up, to which she takes and dusts off the dirt on her skirt.

"Do...Do you want to come over and play?" He asks her in quite a quiet voice, almost so that made her strain her ears to hear him, but nonetheless, she does. It causes a small smile to form on his feature. He isn't entirely sure why he asks her despite not really knowing much about her, but having a friend, or a person who views him as an equal, is rare to come by in their school. He guesses it's because he didn't want to lose that.

She takes a moment to process his request and eventually, smiles as she nods.

"Ah! I need to tell Luto and Auntie Thal though. I'll let you know by the end of the day?"

He only nods at that and together, they walk back to their class, talking and getting to know each other. It warms the hearts of the two children, happy to finally have a friend.

The two are able to learn a few things about each other during their walk back to class. Proper introductions and mundane, basic questions were the only things they had time for.

The two walk side by side, talking and genuinely enjoying the other's presence, to which Mios discovers that a few of her classmates give her horrible, envious glares. The diligent group of girls in Noctis' fan club were pining after Noctis for weeks and never got any sort of acknowledgement from him, and yet Mios managed to become his friend in a matter of minutes. But she brushes it off and takes it with stride, having been used to their awful stares before. The rest of the school day goes about as smoothly as possible, and her bad day turns good. She doesn't get in trouble for harming three of her classmates, knowing that they didn't want to have the reputation of being beaten to the ground by a girl.

Once the school day is over, Mios runs ahead, telling Noctis she would meet him at the front of the school and rushes to meet up with her older brother, who no doubt was what waiting for her so they could walk home together. On most days, it would be Mios waiting for him, but being that it is a holiday, he got out a little earlier than her and is happy to return the favor of waiting for her.

Luto comes into sight and he smiles, seeing that Mios looks happy despite the rocky start of the morning.

"School went ok, I'm guessing?"

She pants but nods, stopping in front of him and wearing a big smile.

"Can I go to a friend's house and play? They can drop me off at home, I won't stay too long." She asks, giving him large, pleading eyes that always works on him. He only smiles though and nods, ruffling her hair a bit, to which she laughs.

"Yeah, it's ok. I'll just let Aunt Thal know."

She squeals with delight and hugs him, happy, to which he returns her embrace, relieved to see her so happy. When they let go of each other, Noctis was behind Mios and clears his throat a little, trying to be discreet about it. Luto's eyes widen and he bows to pay his respects to the young Prince.

"P-Prince Noctis."

Noctis only nods and Luto relaxes visibly. Mios turns to face the Prince and takes a step towards him, the large smile never leaving her face.

"Big brother says I can go!"

Her proclamation brings about a relieved smile from the young Prince but a confused, shocked look from the crownsguard in training.

"Mios, this is the friend you're going over to?"

She nods and waves goodbye to him as she follows Noctis into the car awaiting him, the door being held open by the driver and closes it once the two were safely situated inside.

Luto watches the car drive off and he smiles and laughs softly to himself in disbelief, running a hand through his hair and sighing.

"Man, this is a story to tell to Thal."

-

At the young, ripe age of 7 years old, Mios' breath was truly taken away as she looks up and up and up at the incredibly tall, incredibly intimidating sight of the Citadel. 

"Coming?"

Noctis' voice brings her attention away from the building and to her friend, to which she nods and follows him up the stairs. There, they are greeted by palace guards, crownsguard is what they’re called, right?

Mios is afraid and deathly nervous being within such a grand building, the pinnacle of Insomnia, and followed closely behind her friend. Though she does try to put on a strong front so that people didn’t assume she was weak.

“We can go play in a minute, just gotta go say hi to my dad.”

“The…the king, right?”

Noctis peers over his shoulder at the girl, giving her a quizzical look as he did not miss the slight quiver in her voice. There, he finally sees just how nervous and on edge she is and sighs, slowing down a little to walk side by side.

“It’ll be fine.”

He tries to reassure her and it seems to quell her of her worries but he could tell that she still is tense. They navigate their way around the citadel, going down long, narrow hallways that seem to never end for her but was just a hop, skip, and a step for Noctis, having been so used to it.  The people they pass are very interesting and serious looking, bowing their heads to the young prince as he passes by them but then they see the almost doe-eyed young girl following behind, wondering why in the world she was following Noctis so closely. Noctis doesn’t pay them any mind, but Mios feels incredibly self-conscious being under their watchful and curious gazes. She then begins to admire the young prince and wonders how he doesn’t feel pressure from any of them.

Ah, that’s right.

Because he’s just a little kid. Maybe he doesn’t understand it yet? That’s not giving him enough credit. Maybe he just doesn’t care. She’ll never know and she definitely will not ask.

They finally reach a room with high ceilings, higher ceilings than what she’s seen so far, and are greeted to the sight of the king standing amongst a few of what Mios could only assume were his council members and guard. The sound of the door opening and the two children walking in catches the king’s attention first and he smiles warmly at the sight of his son entering and then seems to be beaming at the sight of what he can assume is a friend that Noctis had brought over.

“Welcome home, my son.” He greets him, ignoring the words of the council members to kneel before Noctis to be on eye level with him to embrace him. Noctis returns the embrace though curtly, and shoves his hands in his pockets as she steps aside and allows Mios to be in full view. The beaming king smiles warmly to her as well as he greets her.

“Ah! And who might you be? A friend of Noctis’ I presume?”

Mios blushes heavily, nervous as she nods and bows to the king, almost forgetting her manners.

“Y-yes, your majesty. Thank you for welcoming me into your home.”

His laugh is gentile but catches her off guard as if it is booming and claps a hand on her shoulder gently.

“Any friend of Noctis is always welcomed here. I only ask that you remain by his side.”

It is a simple enough request to anybody who hears it, but to Mios, she feels like she understands the meaning behind his words and is suddenly filled with determination to keep that request to that of her king and she nods, smiling largely. His words do not hold any big meaning behind it but to her young heart, it’s a request she is honored to keep.

After exchanging a few words between the prince and king, Noctis really just telling his father that he and Mios would be playing in his room, they walk off towards their destination.

The room isn’t entirely what Mios is expecting but she doesn’t ponder on that thought much as Noctis just hops onto the bed and lies back. Mios follows his lead and lies back onto the plush bed on the opposite side of him, their heads next to each other.

“So…what should we do?”

The young girl shrugs and tries to think of things the young prince might like to do. She doesn't think when she opens her mouth as thr first thing that pops into her head slips out.

"Let's play castle?"

Noctis laughs, albeit small, at that.

"Ew, you wanna be my queen or something?"

"Ew, no!" She exclaims, grabbing a nearby pillow and whopping the prince in the face. If anybody were to see her do that to the ‘precious prince’ riots would be held and great dishonor would be bestowed unto her and her family. Luckily, she didn’t live in a time of such harsh modesty and aggression so she didn’t have anything to worry about.

Noctis laughs and grabs the pillow out of her grasp, whopping her in the face as well, eliciting a laugh out of the girl. She jumps up onto her feet on the bed and grabs a pillow, her face serious, her posture defensive and ready for battle.

“If it’s a fight you want, my prince, then it’s a fight you’ll get!” Mios declares and switches onto the offensive, moving in for the first strike but her prince was too fast and manages to block it with his arm.

“We got a rogue body guard on our hands! I must detain her myself!” Noctis jumps up, pillow raised above his head and two hands gripping onto it tightly, landing a strong hit on her. Mios yells out, arm raised in an attempt to shield herself but the hit is too much and she falls to her knees on the bed. Noctis is about to start jumping and yelling in success but darn his good heart, making him kneel beside her in worry to check on her. Did he hit too hard?

“Mios?”

“Hah!”

In a flash, Mios sideswipes him with a pillow, knocking him off balance and falling off the bed and onto his side on the ground. He picks himself up and stares up at her, a pout on his face but he doesn’t say anything. Her proud stature as she stands on the bed, towering over him with her hands on her hips, the light of the sun behind her practically illuminating her. It’s a good look for her.

So he grabs her ankle and pulls her down, causing her to shout and tumble down to the ground next to him on her stomach. She picks herself up, giving him a disgruntled look, a look that causes him to start laughing and fall back onto his back. His laugh is infectious and she can’t help but join in, flopping onto her back as well, laughing until they both become exhausted and were just lying on the ground, staring up at the ceiling.

A knock is heard at the door, followed by the telltale sound of wood creaking, the door opening, and the two children tip their heads back. They see their upside-down visitor to be the king and Mios, all manners tossed out of the window, smiles a toothy smile and waves.

“Hi, your Highness.”

He dismisses her lack of formality with a warm smile as he goes to lay on the floor next to his son and stare up at the ceiling.

“Ceiling watching, are we?”

Their eyes widen in disbelief but soon, Mios is giggling uncontrollably and nods, while Noctis only stares at his father but eventually, a small smile forms and he laughs softly.

“Yeah.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Henlo! 
> 
> This is my first fic after a really long time of not posting (and a lot of writing on the side that I never post). I somehow managed to convince myself and my anxiety to post this and I'm excited to write this as I have a lot of ideas! 
> 
> Sorry if I seem to make the characters a little ooc, I'm trying... ;u; 
> 
> Truthfully, I was afraid to post this because it features my FFXV OC, Mios, and scrap her out altogether and make it a reader-insert instead... But I'm just gonna keep going with this and see how it goes! 
> 
> Constructive criticism and feedback always welcomed!


	2. Let's go to see the Stars and the Moon

“You’re moving?!”

Mios gives her friend a look.

“Say that louder, please, Noct.” She hisses at him, her eyes darting around to make sure no one was really paying attention to the two in the lunch room. Mios is moving, that is true, and it wasn’t that big of a deal. It’s just the circumstances surrounding her move is what she’s worried about people finding out.

In the past few years, from the time she was in elementary school up to her current state of being a middle schooler for the first time with her friend, she had been trying to get accepted into a special school known for housing others with powers much like her own. They hadn’t posed as a problem before but now, as she grew older and subsequently stronger, they had been harder to handle and control unless she gets the proper guidance and teachings in controlling it.

Mios worked hard to get accepted into this school, sending off a decent application, an ‘audition’ video displaying her powers, a 500 word essay, and a couple letters of recommendations from a teacher and the King himself (she really didn’t mean to have him write her one but he had overheard her conversation talking about the school one day with Noct.) The application and its process is practically equal to that of applying for university and yet she is only applying for the Private School for the Gifted located on an island within Accordo. A school surrounded by others like her and be called a Mage, not a monster or outcast. Somewhere she could belong and not be feared.

“I mean, I’m happy for you that you got accepted but…” He trails off quietly, looking down at his hands and pouting a little. The corner of her lips quirks up and sighs, leaning up on her elbows on the table. “I’ll…write you every day, you still have my e-mail don’t you?” She tries to make a deal with him, wanting him to feel better about the whole situation but no matter what she said, the fact of the matter is she is leaving and he would be alone again.

“It’s not gonna be for long, just…3 years I think. And then I’ll be in high school with you!” The black haired girl tries her best to remain upbeat for her friend but the air is still sullen, practically awkward between them. The two children don’t even eat the food before them, just pushing it around with a fork.

“You leave tonight…”

“I know…”

“Did you say all of your goodbyes?”

“Yeah…”

“Hm…”

Noctis gets up, grabbing his trash and it looks like he is going to walk away without her. She frowns deeply, slumps forward and sighs heavily, looking down at the table. He seems…really mad at her. Is going a bad idea? She didn’t want her best friend to hate her, it wasn’t even guaranteed that they would remain friends when she came back. Near tears, she glances up at Noctis to see that he hadn’t left, but rather is looking at her.

“Ready to head back to class?”

Her eyes widen before she sniffles and rub at her eyes with her arm, a smile plastered on her face as she gets up with her trash and follows him out.

-

The day goes by faster than usual, possibly because Mios knows this is her last day here, to spend with everyone. She didn’t have a lot of friends, she will admit that. Really, her only friends are Noctis, the 3 other girls that are a year older than her and used to hang out with a lot in elementary school but ever since they left for middle school, contact had dwindled down to practically nothing, and a boy she had talked to a little bit at a time but not really. What was his name…Prompto? Agh, she’s terrible with names sometimes and it didn’t help that she doesn’t hang out with Prompto that often. Just a few coincidental meet ups and curious talk on her end about his camera and photography. He definitely seems different than he did in elementary, though for the life of her, she couldn’t quite put her finger on it.

All in all, she knows she has to go and bid them farewell for the time being, face to face. One by one, she goes and tells them of her situation, embracing each other and exchanging tearful goodbyes, at least for her Rayn, Viola, and Niella. With Prompto, she tries her best to ignore the awkward exchange and just focused on the goodbye.

“So…see you soon. When I come back, let’s hang out some more, ok?”

He blinks twice before giving her a smile and nod, raising his camera up a little.

“Want to…do a before picture? The after part is when you come back.”

It’s her turn to blink twice at him before breaking out into a smile and nodding excitedly, an arm around his shoulders.

“Alright, but the photographer has to be in it, too!”

-

Ever since the school year started, Luto, now 17 and in high school, had stopped coming to walk home with her. It wasn’t by choice per se as he got accepted into the Crownsguard, taking the first step working towards his dream of being in the Kingsglaive. Mios doesn’t mind it though. He’s following his dream just like she is even if it means sacrificing routine.

Earbuds in, her favorite songs playing on a little mp3 player she had found and Luto fixed up, she walks the path home, the sun still relatively high in the sky but setting soon. Instead of only focusing on the path laid out before her that she always takes, she decides to look up and around her, capturing the sights and views and storing them in her memories, something to look forward to coming back to when she’s gone.

Mios sighs heavily as she looks up at the apartment building she lives in, going to miss the shabby, almost run down look of it. People hanging their wet laundry on drying lines, patrons shouting at each other, people bustling through to various restaurants and bars around the area to get their food fill. But nonetheless, it’s home for her. Mios climbs the steps up to her apartment, unlocking the door and slamming it shut behind her.

“I’m home.” She calls out, though she knows no one would be home for a few hours. Luto usually comes home after the sun has gone down and Aunt Thalassius came home at midnight after closing up shop but she knows they’ll both be back home soon as they need to drop her off at the city entrance, where a representative from the school will take her away for 3 years. When she puts it like that, it sounds ominous in a way and not as exciting as she makes it but she promises, it’s an exciting opportunity for her.

She drops her bag onto the couch and begins to take her luggage and belongings down to her Aunt’s truck, loading it up, strapping it down, and throwing a tarp over it, silently praying that no one comes and takes her stuff. She may love the neighborhood she lives in but that doesn’t mean it’s entirely safe.

As Mios finishes up packing, she notices a nice car drive up in front of the truck and the door open. Suddenly, out comes her friend and she smiles, running up to him and stopping short in front of him.

“Noct? What are you doing here?”

“What? I can’t visit to say bye?”

The black-haired girl giggles softly and goes up to him, hugging him curtly, knowing he isn’t entirely comfortable with the hugs like she is. Though he does embrace her fully. They step away and he immediately shoves his hands into the pockets of his black cargo shorts.

“So um…”

He pauses and looks around, trying to be as nonchalant as possible. Mios senses it immediately and sighs.

“Rooftop?”

“…yeah.”

The driver tells Noctis he would wait there, knowing it won’t take too long as the two children enter the apartment, out onto the fire escape, and up to the roof. Near a ledge that looks out onto the city, are two lawn chairs, an umbrella, and two cardboard signs hanging behind the chairs, one saying _King_ , the other saying _Guard_ as Mios refuses to be called _Queen_ in anyway. Though she knows it can’t say _Shield_ either as she’s not an Amicitia. It’s their not-so-secret secret hideout that they like to go to hang out, talk, scream and shout their frustrations, and just be away from everyone and be with only each other. It’s the one spot that Noctis can go and not think about his princely duties or royalties and it relaxes him immensely when he lays back in the adjustable lounger.

The best part about this spot? It’s one of the few places where they can both see the stars in the sky so clearly compared to being down on ground level of the bustling city. A clear night, a full, bright moon, and plenty of stars for the two of them to enjoy. For a couple of young middle schoolers, this is heaven.

“You know, Luto and Aunt Thal said you’re welcome any time to come here. They said you can have my key and everything.” Mios tells him, her gaze never leaving the sky. “I’m sure the stars over at the Private school will be just as bright but I’m gonna miss these the most.” Noctis nods along, hearing her words but not really listening to them. The young girl senses this and turns to look at her friend, noticing a glazed over look, like he was there, but not at the same time.

“Noct?”

“You’re gonna watch the stars with someone else…”

“What?”

He’s silent for a moment before getting up, his back to her as he reaches into his jacket and pulls out an envelope, thrusting it over in her direction.

“I gotta go…”

“Oh…Ok.” Mios stands and silently climbs down the fire escape with Noct, exiting the apartment and ending up in front of the car that takes him home. He gets in without looking back at her, without saying anything to her and all she can do is smile and wave goodbye as the vehicle pulls away and out of sight.

To say it didn’t hurt immensely would be a lie but she isn’t going to be spiteful or angry. If it’s easier for him to end things the way he did, then she will let them end. Maybe it’ll hurt less to be away.

That’s a lie too.

“Mioo!”

Arms envelope her all of a sudden and she is scooped up and plopped onto her big brother’s shoulders, who ran all the way home from the bus stop. Mios laughs and her sadness goes away for the moment, focusing on her family. Luto being here meant that Aunt Thal is close behind and soon, she would be leaving. Luto decides to start whipping something together for dinner before their aunt came home while Mios goes into her room and the bathroom, making sure she got everything she needs for her trip. It’s then she remembers the letter she had thrown on the table when she and Noctis passed it. The thought of the letter hurt her even more but maybe it’s the puberty making her feel more angsty than usual. Is this what middle school is? Gross.

She sighs and decides to confront it, noticing the royal seal in wax that kept the envelope shut. Fancy. Carefully, she opens it, finding two letters. One contained the elegant and graceful handwriting of their beloved king and someone who had become a father-figure for her and Luto since the beginning of her and Noct’s friendship while the other contained the familiar handwriting that belongs to her friend.

_My Dearest Mios,_

_It is with great sadness to know that you are leaving Insomnia for the time being but it is with a full heart to know that you will be within the safe reaches of Accordo. These past years, you have kept my request to stay by Noctis’ side and I know that when you come back, you will resume that position as I and Noctis have both grown fond over you._

_I view you as a daughter of mine and though it pains me to know you are leaving, I am proud that you are able to take the first steps towards achieving your dream. The private academy is incredibly lucky to have you as a student and I know you will do wonders and make your family proud of your future achievements. Do your best while there and never forget, you have loving family and friends excitedly waiting for your return._

_Take care._

His entire name and title is beautifully scrawled at the bottom of the letter and it warms her heart to know the King went out of his way to write her this letter, despite how short it is but it doesn’t bother her in the least. After all, it’s her dream to work and serve under the King within his magicians’ court, The Circle.

The Circle is acutely akin to that of the Kingsglaive but focuses more on recruiting eligible mages from all over to serve and protect the king and Insomnia. These mages go through a rigorous application process and must be selected by the king himself so long as they prove they are worthy. Many people can train to handle magic through various ways and can be given the power by the Lucian family but the Circle Is special as they are made up of mages who are born with the gift, having no need to be given the power by the Lucian family in anyway. It’s a powerful group that has served the family for a very long time, supposedly since the very beginning of the Lucian line but not a lot of history or facts are known about them as they tend to work covertly and information about the Circle had only recently been made public in the last hundred years.

No matter what though, she wants to be a member of the Circle, a dream her grandmother had given her since those born with magic can skip generations. Her mother didn’t have her gift but she did and she is going to do what’s right with it.

She finally looks over to Noct’s letter, which is a paragraph worth of sentances.

_Mios,_

_Good luck when you go to that school. You’re gonna like it there, I’m sure so don’t be missing this place too much because if you leave too early, you’re gonna regret it. We’re still friends even if we’re not together so don’t worry about that either._

_Going to miss you a lot._

_But have fun._

Short, sweet, and straight to the point. Mios could tell his father probably told Noctis to do this but that’s assuming and that’s not always good. Nonetheless, it’s a letter from her friend and her renewed hope that they will remain friends through this… hope being the key word.

The front door opens, followed by a heavy sigh and the door slamming once more.

“Welcome home.” The two siblings call out to their aunt, who replies, “I’m home.” Her returning home becomes a signal for Mios to come to the kitchen and enjoy a last meal with them for the time being because soon after, she leaves.

The dinner goes by well, talking about their days, praising Luto for his good cooking and Aunt Thal telling him he could open up a decent restaurant with his skills, though he is self-taught. Aunt Thal had even got a gift for Mios. A new cellphone so she could text and call them anytime she could, presenting Luto one, and holding up another, that way they could keep in contact with each other anytime. A luxury they could finally afford in the nick of time. At the end of the dinner, when all the dishes have been washed and put in the drying rack, the family stands in the kitchen, giving each other sad, but knowing glances.

“Ready to go, kiddo?”

“Yeah…”

The drive isn’t quiet, their aunt putting in some tunes and the family scream singing to the lyrics, windows rolled down and music blasting. It’s a send-off that Mios completely prefers versus one that is silent and sullen. It only reassures her that her family will be ok when she’s gone.

At the edge of the city, the representative for the school is waiting. A tall woman wearing a black blazer and pencil skirt and a white frilly blouse. Her dark brown hair is tightly pulled back into a neat bun. Her entire presence just oozed sophistication and poise but when she sees Mios, she breaks out into a bright grin.

“Ah! You must be the lucky miss Mios! My name is Cynthia and I’ll be your travel buddy for this little excursion.”

 _‘Never judge a book by its cover and all that.’_ Mios thinks as she smiles and nods, accepting her hand to shake it.

“My car is over here so we can transfer all of your belongings and such into the truck while I speak with your guardian, alright?”

Mios only nods and follows her brother to the back of the truck, beginning the unloading and loading process. She can’t really hear what their talking about, just something about student accounts, loans, scholarships, all financial stuff that Aunt Thal doesn’t need to worry about because of her parents’ inheritance and her full scholarship.

“Don’t spend the money things you don’t need.”

“You can splurge a little bit but not too much and not too often.”

“Remember, your education comes first.”

“But don’t forget to have fun.”

“Just have fun.”

The pieces of every conversation she has with her aunt about the money comes back and haunts every time, being drilled into her mind until she can practically recite it in her sleep. She knows the money thing is always an issue, so she will try her best to be responsible with it.

Once all of her stuff is in the trunk of the way nicer looking vehicle, something that looks like it belongs at the Citadel, Mios turns to fully confront her family and rushes towards them, hugging the two of them tightly at their mid-sections to which they kneel down and hold each other tightly. Luto pulls back first and ruffles her hair a little.

“You be good out there, kiddo.”

“Text and call every chance you get, ok?”

Mios nods and is escorted into the car, barely listening to Cynthia ramble on and on about how great the school is and how she’s going to have a good time as she just stares out the window, looking at her family and then past them, the bright city lights illuminating the sky.

She looks down at her phone, scrolling through it and setting it up for the first time to her liking until a ping sound comes on, indicating a new message from a number she didn’t recognize.

_Let’s go to see the stars and the moon when you get back._

_-Noct_

Things will be ok.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter is relatively short and doesn't feature the canon characters a lot (I know, I have a lot of ocs am sorry ;~;).  
> But I really liked this chapter and tried my best to capture the essence of the part of Insomnia that Mios and her family lives in. (Think of that scene from Kingsglaive where Nyx meets up with Crowe and everyone at that little restaurant.) 
> 
> I hope you're still enjoying this as my posting schedule is a little all over the place and I deeply apologize if the characters seem really ooc as I'm still working on making them as believable as possible. 
> 
> kudos/commentary/criticism always appreciated and thanks so much for reading ;u;


	3. Everything Does Not Stay

If there was one thing Noctis knew, it was that people don’t stay, they are not forever. He had to learn that at a very young age due to his mother’s passing. One day she was home, the next, she wasn’t and the young prince had to piece together the puzzle on why that was.

At a very young age, he learned about death.

At a very young age, he learned about being alone.

But he won’t let that stop him from trucking on in life because no matter what, he always had his father with him and some children aren’t lucky like he was to be able to say that so he doesn’t take it for granite. To have someone be his friend like his father has been with him is something that Noctis will always cherish and he tried his best in school to make friends and create some form of bond with them but the kids in his school were always the same: fake.

None of them wanted to really know him. They just wanted to have the bragging rights of knowing him. They wanted the extra boost in their popularity or be a part of his ‘luxurious’ life. They didn’t ask him “How are you?” or “Hey Noctis! You’re a really great friend!” All he ever heard from them were, “How many servants do you have?”, “What’s it like being a prince?”, “Can I come over and see your toys?”, “I bet you have a lot of rich friends!”

His father was always working, which meant Noctis was left alone quite often. But his father was a busy man, protecting the city and its people so he understands that he wasn’t alone. The people at his school, their materialistic desires, and their constant probing into his life are what makes him lonely. It’s no wonder why he keeps to himself mostly, why he tends to brush people off when all they want to do is play 20 questions about the Citadel, and why he spent his school career barely hearing them.

For him, it felt like he was the only one who felt lonely, seeing groups of friends play and laugh and enjoy each other’s company, but sometimes, he’ll look up and possibly see some other students from time to time be alone as well. Will he approach them though? Not likely. He’s too afraid they’ll be the same as the loud majority to even try. Assumption is wrong but he’s encountered too many nosy classmates to wonder any different.

One day in class, head down on his arms to try and work in a little nap time before their teacher came in, he heard talk about a girl and something that had happened to a student.

“You hear about that witch?”

“I heard she threatened him with her powers if he told anyone.”

“I heard from Leo that she threatened to kill his family because their witch hunters.”

“Witches and mages are the same thing, right? Maybe they’re wrong.”

“No, I sit next to her and she has this creepy book she writes in all the time that she’s really bad at hiding.”

“I heard she writes a list of people to curse!”

“Gross! You think she has voodoo dolls?!”

They’re being too loud. How is he supposed to nap when a big group of whispering kids just keep spouting untrue things? Besides, there’s no way anyone can have powers like that other than the Lucian family, everybody knows that.

Right?

He will be honest enough that their conversation _is_ very interesting so he decides to feign sleep and listen in some more. It’s rude to ease-drop but it’s all fake, he’s confident in that.

“Mios is really dangerous. Nobody talks to her anymore because of the bad thing that happened to Culpa.”

“Where’s he now?”

“Nurse’s office I think. He got electrocuted and keeps twitching.”

“I heard a teacher say he’s gonna be twitching for the rest of his life.”

The door of the classroom opens, and the students freeze in their tracks, probably staring at the intruder. Their silence is deafening and Noctis can’t help but look up as well and there she is.

Mios.

Her gaze remains fixed to the ground as she makes her way towards her desk, the first desk by the door at the front, and she just sits there, pulling out a dark book, her pencil case, and begins writing. The whispering continues. Is that the rumored creepy book?

“Monster…”

Noctis’ eyes widen and he turns towards the group, finding that all of them are glaring at her. Who said that? Mios just focuses her attention on the book, not turning to look back at them.

“Witch…”

“Hag.”

“Outcast.”

Mios turns at that and has no expression on her face, just a wide eyed, blank stare as she stares back at the group, silently challenging them to say something else. They stay quiet at that and refuse to look up, suddenly fearful for their lives. Noctis doesn’t pay attention to them, only stares at her and soon, her attention is on him. They just stare, blue eyes being stared down by purples but Noctis isn’t scared. The person out of all of them who looked scared the most is Mios.

It’s then that some sort of revelation hits him.

She’s alone.

And it doesn’t help that their classmates were actively isolating her. All throughout the day, they gave her awful, dirty looks behind her back. They threw wads of paper at her when the teacher wasn’t looking, they would whisper things to each other, glancing at her every so often and then laughed. This went on for a few days and when people realized that she never did anything to fight back, they became emboldened. Their insults were upped the ante, their bullying became more physical. Most of these kids were absolutely awful and Noctis hated it. It didn’t help that so many girls would come up to him, begging him to protect them from the evil witch or that he should go, in ‘true prince fashion’, and slay the witch himself, to which he always refused profusely. ‘Slaying’ another kid? How awful are these kids? Even if they were joking, it’s still really cruel.

A month had passed and Noctis finally heard the true reason of what happened to Culpa at the Citadel, when a boy a few years older than him was talking to a fellow crownsguard.

“My sister is being horribly bullied at school all because of a misunderstanding…”

“What happened?”

“I told you before that my sister has…special capabilities.” He whispered that. “She accidentally shocked a student when he pushed her to the ground. She tried to grab onto him for stability but accidentally shocked him with magic.”

A heavy sigh.

“Now all the students think she’s some evil cult witch or something. I hear talk about it in my school too but I had no idea it was Mios until she came home one day with a bunch of bruises.”

A misunderstanding, a story that was fabricated to get the student body riled up. Culpa had been back to school for a while, not twitching but still spreading rumors about Mios and their class just eats it up. It doesn’t help that the teachers do nothing about it either, almost as if they were believing it. They just couldn’t be bothered by fickle recess gossip. “Kids will be kids.” They’ll say and Noctis just becomes angry. To hell with that!

If anything, Noctis wants to change it because he knows what it’s like, to be absolutely alone and at the same time, he can’t stand just seeing this go on and on for so long. It’s torture to watch her be practically lifeless.

So, that’s what he did the next day, he tried to change things. Even if it was just a little something. Noctis is stopped by the usual group of kids outside in the hallway that try and probe into his life like every day but he doesn’t hear them, just ignoring them and keeping watch for Mios. Eventually, he does, seeing her just disappear into the classroom and he follows suit, not saying a word to any of them. He goes through the door and sees Mios at her desk, writing in her book as per usual. He takes a deep breath, prepping himself and stops in front of her desk.

“Good morning, Mios.”

Her hand stills and she looks up at him, eyes wide and almost like tears in her eyes. How alone was she?

“Good morning, Noctis.”

It’s small, barely above a whisper but it’s there and he smiles a little before walking to his desk, ignoring the shocked looks of his classmates, and resting his head on his folded arms, catching a hint of a smile from the girl. He feels warm and fuzzy all over, happy to know that he was able to change the loneliness of one person, for a moment at least.

But the response he got from that one interaction made him question whether or not Mios believed him as fellow classmates went up to him and tell him how brave he was to speak to the witch.

“She’s not a witch.” He always said and soon, they stopped coming up to him, saying how brave he was and stopped hearing whispers about it too. He could slap a teacher and they would say how ‘brave’ he was just because he’s the prince. Noctis just wanted things to change.

From then on, he tells her good morning every day and sees a little change from the students, finding less and less of them glaring at her, spreading rumors about her, bullying her in anyway and more and more of them minding their own business. Sometimes during lunch, three girls a year above them would come and visit Mios, asking her to have lunch with them or come play with them and she would go.

Noctis would see this from time to time and he’s relieved that she looks like she’s feeling better. He can’t help but feel a personal mission accomplished, thinking that he had a hand in turning the tides.

Coming to school was less dreary now and things were back to normal for the most part.

-

Parents’ Day was upon them and though Noctis’ father apologized profusely for his inability to go with him, Noctis understood and told his father not to worry about it.

“You’re…protecting all of us so I know you’re busy. It’s ok.”

Seeing all the parents around him just made the day nosier than usual, not alone. He greets Mios and she replies but she doesn’t seem as enthusiastic. He leaves it alone and just goes to his desk. Lecture was usual as everyday but it seemed like their teacher gave an even preppier lecture for the sake of the parents, who were blankly staring at her.

He heard the whispers, the rumors. They were starting again and their about him but he’s used to it so he ignores them. He ignores their words of accusing him of not having a decent relationship with his father, accusing him of being so spoiled and that’s why his father wasn’t there with him for Parents’ Day but their all false accusations, lies.    

It’s why he’s so sick of it. But they’re people that live in the city, the city that his father and a whole lineage dedicate their entire lives to protect and grow. So, he can’t hate these people because he loves them too.

Lunch finally rolls around and Noctis gets up and narrowly makes his way to a quiet spot outside that he usually goes. Even if the parents are there, the constant whispering and shameless glances at him kept happening that even the parents were doing it too. Finally alone, he doesn’t eat but rather just lays back on the grass and naps for a little bit, enjoying the feeling of the sun on his skin. Thankfully lunch is going to be longer due to the parents being here so he had a little extra napping minutes before he hears something, a group of people talking. They were talking about kids that didn’t have parents to bring and then about him and how ‘spoiled’ he must be. The young prince groans and turns onto his side away from the sound but then he hears Mios.

“Hey!”

Noctis is shook and sits up, hearing that there’s some anger in her voice. Listening in on what’s happening, he hears them arguing, even fighting, but he doesn’t come out of hiding, he can only listen, shocked at what he heard Mios say, trying to defend his honor and telling these awful boys that he’s just a little kid like them.

No one had defended him the way she did. Anytime anyone defended him, it’s always “Hey, he’s a prince! His guards will come and get you!”. But Mios never said that and it… it warms his heart a little to know that she views him as an equal, beyond his princely title.

When they finally leave Mios alone, he comes out of hiding and instantly knew two things: 1) that he hated those boys the most for hurting her and 2) he wanted to definitely be her friend. He knew she wasn’t going to be like the others who only focused on his riches so he didn’t want to lose that. He’s ok with being alone but sometimes, the loneliness can be too much for little him.

Their friendship grew ever since he invited her to his home, remaining by each other’s sides through the rest of elementary school. Sure, they got teased often, saying they were going out, but they always refused profusely but when it’s not being teased about being together, then it’s Mios being threatened constantly for ‘stealing the prince all for herself’ or ‘bewitching him with one of her weird spells.’ It annoyed the both of them and they can only ignore it for so long but they try their best and just push through the rest of the school years until middle school.

The summers in between school years, Mios and Noctis usually didn’t hang out and it saddened them a little but not too much. Mios would leave with her aunt and brother sometimes to go and visit Altissia, their home before moving to Insomnia, or would work with her brother in their aunt’s boutique, stocking and selling product. While Noctis would be home in the Citadel, busy training or going through some sort of lesson plan set up by his father’s advisors. They try to write to or see each other and visit each other’s homes often, talking more and more to get to know each other.

Mios knows about what had happened in Tenebrae, or at least some of it. The details are a little fuzzy and things happened fast according to him. She knows about Luna and their friendship, she knows about the accident that put him in a coma, she knows about Umbra and the book, and she knows about how he doesn’t have a mother because she died.

“But no one will really tell me how so I don’t know much about it…”

“That’s…that’s ok. My parents died too.”

“Both of them?”

“Yeah…”

Noctis knows about her parents’ passing in Tenebrae, or at least some of it. Her aunt and brother hid most of the details from her so she really doesn’t know anything about it. He knows about her special powers, her and her brother’s move from Altissia to Insomnia, and how her aunt is raising two kids on her own while running a boutique.

“What does she sell in there?”

“Clothes, homemade candles, things like that. It’s ‘trendy’ because I hear some older kids say that sometimes when they come in.”

“What does that even mean?”

“I don’t know.”

The summer before middle school, Mios and Noctis had put together their secret hideout on the roof with the help of Luto and their aunt, who are always happy to have Noctis over.

“I’m putting _King_ on my sign. You should put _Queen_ so we can match.” Noctis suggested, doodling a little stick figure with a crown, sword, and angry eyes. Mios stops drawing and stares at him, offended and disgusted by the thought.

“I refuse to be called _Queen_ in anyway. I’ve been telling you this since we first met, remember?”

He laughs at that.

“Yeah, then you hit me with a pillow.”

“I’m gonna put Shield. That can still match with King, right?”

“Nope, can’t put that because you’re not my Shield.”

“What? Why not?”

Noctis sits back on his haunches and stares out at the sky thoughtfully, making sure his facts are straight.

“I already have one. Their whole family is destined to be the King’s Shield. His name is Gladiolus and he’s mine but he’s in... middle school right now, I think? His dad is my dad’s shield. It’s a family thing so nope, can’t be a shield.”

Mios nods and then stares at her blank piece of cardboard, tapping the end of her marker against her chin.

“Alright, then I’ll put _Guard_. That’s something, right?”  

Their friendship gave each other people who loved them unconditionally, a parent figure that was missing from their lives. The king a father figure for Mios and Thalassius and Luto a mother and brother figure for Noctis.

His view on the world, these new additions of people in his life, it changed something within him.

People may leave his life but there are those who do come and stay.

But that just only means that people leave eventually and hearing Mios talk about a school in Accordo when she came back from a trip a couple summers ago and the two were sitting in the Palace garden, only made him realize it.

“A school? But you go to school here.”

“Yeah, I know but it’s a school where they teach you how to use magic like a pro!”

She tells him how her aunt had heard about the school and took her and her brother for a tour. She fell in love with it instantly and was incredibly excited to see kids her age using magic with such ease. She told him that a professor there asked for a demonstration of her powers in front of her class and when she did it, no one called her a witch or hag or outcast. They didn’t give her hateful glares or threw wads of paper at her, only watch with amazement and even clapped for her. She’s never felt so proud of her abilities as the kids at their school only made her feel ashamed of them.

“But you barely use yours.”

“I know, but I want to control it better so I can use it one day. Safely, too.”

She kept telling him about the application process and how her aunt helped her submit one but now she has a ton of other stuff she still needs to do like a video, an essay, and get letters of recommendations.

“It’s a lot of hard work but I really want to go. If I’m gonna be a guard for you or the king one day, I gotta be really strong!”

It was her conviction and passion that made him keep his mouth shut. He didn’t want her to go, he’d be alone all over again and who knows when she’ll come back. If he’s going to be honest, she’s his best friend and when she goes to the new school, she’ll find a new one and replace him. A sense of dread washed over him at the thought of her finding a new best friend but he’s not going to let her know he’s bothered by it and remains encouraging.

“You’re gonna get accepted, I’m sure of it.”

He can’t take away her smile. He even helps her film her audition video, almost setting the garden on fire when one of her fire spells almost went haywire. His father heard about the school and gave Mios a letter of recommendation, to which Mios tried to refuse but eventually had to take it through very assertive means on the king’s part. Thinking about her leaving, he wanted to do something for her, at least have something from him that she could take with her. A letter maybe, but Noctis isn’t too good with words yet so he had to ask his father for help when he was able to catch him at a good time. Regis was incredibly excited to write a goodbye letter for his daughter figure and was even more excited that Noctis came up to him for help. Despite the reason, it was a bonding experience for both father and son.

Noctis tried his best to be supportive to his friend and tried to believe her words when she kept telling him she’ll never replace him as a best friend.

“A one of a kind friend is irreplaceable.”

When she said that to him the summer before middle school, he believed her words but when she tells him that she got accepted the day she was leaving, her words didn’t mean anything anymore.

“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

“I found out this morning. Aunt Thalassius tends not to get the mail till the beginning of the week so when we got the letter today, I found out I had to move today.”

It felt like excuses to him but he can’t say anything, not wanting to ruin her first, and last, day of middle school with him. A couple of new middle schoolers, they were, and yet she was leaving him, talking about seeing the stars at the new school, where she’ll watch them with other people, people that aren’t him. It hurt to know that she was leaving in a matter of hours and even tried to be a good friend till the very end but he just felt too upset to be supportive and left. Even if he knows he’s ending things awfully between them, maybe it’ll make things easier for the both of them.

She won’t have to worry about him while she’s gone and he won’t have to feel replaced if and when she got a new best friend. There was no point in saying things like ‘let’s talk every day!’ when that wasn’t going to happen. He can already predict that communication would dwindle down to nothing so he’s saving them the pain of experiencing that down the road by doing this, by ending things.

The drive home was quiet and he just stared out the window, mulling over his thoughts. Maybe he shouldn’t have left, he should have been more communicative with her, with everything. He should’ve opened his mouth and said something because she’s his friend, she would have understood, right? He sighs heavily and focuses his vision on the less-than-nice part of town and spots the boutique Mios’ aunt owns.

“Um…can you pull over there for a second?” He asks, pointing at the rapidly passing store. The driver peers up at Noctis through the rear-view window and nods without question. Noctis feels bad for asking, knowing it’s late and the driver most likely just wants to go home but he just needed to do something. If he remembered correctly, Thalassius and Luto were talking about getting cellphones and coincidentally, his father had given him one now that he was in middle school. If anything, he could maybe save the last of their friendship somehow.

The car pulls up to the shop, just as Thalassius was locking the doors. She turns at the sound of a car and smiles tiredly when she sees Noctis hopping out.

“Oh, hello, Noct. Were you on the way to see Mios?”

He shakes his head, his shoulders slumping a little.

“No, I just left there actually. Um…I…” He stops and pulls out his cellphone from his pocket, causing the red-haired woman to tilt her head slightly in curiosity.

“I remembered you and Luto talking about getting cellphones and I wanted to see if you got them?”

She smiles at that and nods, reaching into one of her bags and pulling out a brand-new cellphone, still sealed inside its packaging.

“I’m going to give them to Luto and Mios tonight at dinner so I don’t want to open it yet, but I have her number written down if you want it?”

He nods.

“I’d like that very much, please.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahh I had to re-write this chapter a couple times because I couldn't decide on how to start this chapter, let alone what this chapter would be about. Overall, I really liked how this came out, even if it seems a little rushed in some parts. :/ 
> 
> I have this page setup on my tumblr, featuring rough sketches of Mios through her stages of life as well as a written bio for her so you cna understand her character a little more. You can find it [ here. ](http://risingtea.tumblr.com/mios%20)  
> Next chapter I'm really excited for as it'll feature everyone's favorite sunshine boy a little more! 
> 
> Kudos and comments are much appreciated and thank you so much for reading!


	4. Like a Flower in Full Bloom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Underage drinking and thoughts of suicide.

Entering high school is hard on him, only because he’s just tired and lazy and completely unwilling to do the work. 3 more years and Noctis can forget about school and just do whatever but the first day isn’t too bad, as he is given the chance to reconnect with a friend from quite a long time ago.

“I’m Prompto! Nice to meet you!”

Noctis looks him up and down, scoffs, and then gives a small, tired smile.

“Haven’t we met before?”

It’s nice to know that at least he’ll have a friend and he wouldn’t be alone. Now being in high school, it just feels like the stares he gets are amplified thanks to teenage hormones. Now, the crushes on him aren’t as innocent but almost sex-driven and it’s causing his skin to crawl. Whatever, he’ll just push through this like he’s always done.

He hears the whispers about him.

“Ahh, we’re so lucky to be at the same school with the prince!”

“Should we talk to him?”

“Of course not! Oh…but I want to talk to him badly.”

 They get on his nerves and annoys him to no end. At least he has Prompto by his side, distracting him for the most part from all the whispering. But when he listens in on the whispering hear and there, he also hears the whispers about someone else.

“You hear about the mage that transferred over here from Accordo?”

Mage…Accordo…Is she back already?

It peaks his interest and he pulls out his phone, checking the date.

No, it can’t be. Luto told him that Mios wouldn’t be back for a few weeks. Prompto walks beside his friend, listening on the whispers of the gossip around them.

“They’re really excited today. Guess it’s first day of school vibes?”

“Yeah…”

He’s not listening, just staring at the date as if it has some sort of answer for him. When Mios left, the two tried really hard to stay in contact but as he predicted, their conversations just dwindled into nothing. For a whole year and half, they weren’t able to hold a conversation other than single texts here and there. Mios became too busy with her school work and exams and living her dream, while Noctis became too busy with training in combat and in his duties. It felt like a strain on their relationship, Mios had pointed out, so she proposed that they not worry about each other until she finally came back, whenever that was. He didn’t remember much once they stopped talking but if anything, he remembered the night they did.

It happened one summer between middle school and was an incredibly late night. Noctis had been swamped with studies and training and was trying his best to fall asleep. His body wanted sleep, but his mind wanted to stare at his phone until his best friend called. He was so tired but Mios had promised him they would talk, saying she had something important they needed to talk about.

It worried him all day, causing him to have a long, hard day since he seemed like he couldn’t focus on anything. His phone finally rang and he sits up, grabbing it and taking a few deep breaths to prep himself before answering.

“Hey.”

“Hey yourself.” Mios tells him, her voice slightly above a whisper and sounding more tired and drained than usual.

“Rough day?”

“Ugh, like you wouldn’t believe.” A ruffling sound can be heard in the background and Noctis thinks that it’s her just getting comfortable in bed. “Madeline Greather, the crazy pyro chick, was my partner in one of our outdoor exercises today and the elemental spell of the day was _Ice_ but she thought it’d be funny to ‘de-frost the grass’ and almost set the school on fire. It was dealt with eventually but it took a lot of energy to ice down the fire.”

He laughs tiredly at that, remembering Mios mention Madeline a few times before.

“You sound tired though. Ignis and Gladio treating you alright?”

He sighs heavily and shrugs.

“Sort of, just same old, same old.”

She hums softly and nods, acknowledging his answer before the two sit in silence for a moment. It’s a regular thing that tends to happen between the two when they have these phone calls but today, Noctis felt incredibly weirded out by it. His shoulders slump a little and his head hangs lower than it usually does. He needed to rip the band aid off, for both their sakes.

“Hey…What did you want to talk about?”

More silence hangs between them, as if the longer the silence, the larger the gap is created between them and Noctis can just the dark void growing and growing every second.

“We… Let’s stop being friends.”

His heart stops and the color drains out of his face. Ah, so that’s it. It hurts to breathe, it hurts to think about it. Her words are on repeat in his mind and it smashed his heart with a sledgehammer.

Why…should he care? If that’s what she wanted, then fine. He tried to end things before she left so this exact situation wouldn’t happen to them and yet it did anyway because he didn’t want to lose his friend.

“Noct?” Her voice is quiet, small, as if near tears.

“Oh…”

“It’s not you or anything, I’m not mad, I promise. I just think it’s hard to be friends because we’re so busy now. The curriculum is getting harder here and you’re gonna be busier with all your training and studies. We’re…We’re not gonna have a lot of time to talk anymore so I just want us to not befriends for now until I get back.” She tries to explain and it makes him feel a little better but at the same time, it still hurts. But he won’t say anything. He knows he wouldn’t help the situation by being angry.

“I’m not mad, just so you know. I get it though, we’re gonna be busy so we don’t have time to talk. You think I’m gonna be mad at something that makes sense? You worry too much.”

“Growing up sucks huh?”

“Yeah, no kidding.”

“Hey Noct?”

“Hm?”

“Thanks for understanding.”

He sighs and shrugs, even if she couldn’t see it.

“No problem.”

They end the call soon after that, Mios claiming she was tired and he was tired too but it was hard to sleep after that.

He sighs heavily, his shoulders slump, as he shoves his phone back into his pocket. He’s almost forgotten that night a few times but his accursed mind makes him wander into those memories at nights when he can’t sleep and he hurts all over. Despite the pain of losing his friend, he tries his best to just focus on the now. Prompto is here, so he’ll catch up with him. After all, since meeting his friend a long time ago and never seeing much of him anymore after that until now, there was a lot of catching up that needed to be done.

Though, he’s unable to speak two words when he hears surprised screams from the student behind him. The two turn to look over their shoulders and see a small, black cat sprinting down the path, followed by a black-haired girl chasing after it.

“Come back here!”

When she passes the prince, she doesn’t bat an eye to him, focusing all her attention onto the cat but when she passes him, Noctis only sees a remnant of his friend. Her hair is longer, her figure is taller, leaner. His friend grew up like he did.  

So, he does the only thing that comes to mind: He chases after her-

“Wha- hey!”

-with Prompto following suit.

The cat leads the three around the courtyard a few times, the girl skidding and sliding all over the place to try and intercept the cat’s path but failing every time. She doesn’t care that she’s getting dirt and grass all over her uniform, she just wants to catch the cat and end this wild goose chase that she managed to string along two other students into. Finally, it jumps into the bushes, to which the young woman does as well, practically diving into it. Noctis skids to a halt and hunches over, breathing heavily to catch his breath.

“Come out, kitty!”

Prompto dives into the bushes as well and the rustling of the leaves intensifies, followed by a series of shouts and yowls. Eventually, the two students pop out of the bush, the girl holding the cat in both arms above her head.

“Gotcha! I knew it was a bad idea to bring you, Ritz!” She chastises him, bringing him down eye level to which he hisses and she gives him a look. Finally, she looks up and purple eyes meet blue. They stare wide eyed at each other until finally, Mios has a sheepish grin plastered on and moves the cat to partially cover her face.

“U-um…H-hey Noct. How you been?”

He’s still staring wide eyed. Earlier, when he thought he saw Mios, a small part of his mind made him think it was hopeful thinking. But now? Seeing the older girl before him, he realizes that he clearly sees the small girl from a long time ago within her and is now for sure that she’s really there with him. He eventually shakes out of his daze to offer both of his hands to his friends, grunting with effort as he pulls them out of the bush and pile onto the ground with a yell. Ritz brings a paw up to lick and wash himself while the three pick themselves up off the ground, glance at each other, and laugh at the hilarity of the situation that just happened. It’s stuff that cartoons are made of.

Mios and Prompto pull the twigs and leaves out of their hair and off their clothes, offering help if they see something the other person miss. The black-haired girl is in the midst of picking a small twig out of the blonde’s hair when she finally looks over at Prompto and her eyes widen, recognizing him instantly from the last time she saw him.

“Prompto?”

It’s his turn to give her a sheepish grin and nods.

“Haha…yeah, h-hey Mios.”

“Oh my gosh, hi! How have you been?” She asks him excitedly, happy that she remembered her friend and that he remembers her.

He’s relieved that Mios remembers him and excitedly speaks with her, leaning back on the palms of his hands and catching up with her. If he’s going to be honest, he always thinks about that photo he took with her before she left. The after photo that he mentioned a long time ago.

Noctis looks between his two friends, watching them talk and laugh and become excited and feels the corner of his lip quirk up. High school suddenly didn’t seem so bad.

When the three stand, Ritz in the protective arms of his owner, Noctis fully takes in his childhood friend and realizes how grown she’s become and how mature she looks compared to the last time he saw her. They walk over to a bench once they’ve dusted off their pants and skirt of dirt and grass and continue to talk, well, more like Noctis questioning Mios.

“You’re…You’re home early. Luto said you wouldn’t be back for another month.” ‘I thought you would call when you came back.’ He wants to add but decides to keep his mouth shut, thinking that maybe she didn’t want to become friends again when she came back. It’s a thought that hurt him but he doesn’t linger on it. Prompto feels like the question will give him no room to answer or be a part of it in anyway, so he gets up, claiming he wants to go by the water fountains for a drink and would be right back, giving the two friends some space.

Mios watches her new friend jog away and looks down at Ritz’ sleek, black fur. She’s honestly afraid to be alone with Noctis now, afraid that he’ll lash out on her. Three years is a lot of time to bottle up emotions and the cork must be ready to pop like on wedding days. But she must confront it, there isn’t any other way around it.

“I came back a little early. I took my exit exams ahead of time so I could come to the first day of high school with everyone. I came back yesterday and surprised Aunt Thal and Luto when they came home from work.”

Noctis nods his head, giving her words some thought and almost thinks that she won’t answer any further but, he is proven wrong when she sighs heavily, sits up straight and looks him dead in the eye.

“We’ve been friends for too long to hide things from each other, you know. I can tell you’re upset that I didn’t call. You…” She raises a hand and places it on his shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze for reassurance.

“You don’t have to worry about anything, ok? If you’re willing to pick things back up from where we left off, then I am too.”

Relief washes over him but also a little embarrassment that she’s able to read him like an open book. Before, she used to be the biggest ditz past her initial stoic composure but now, she’s much more sharp than usual. That school did her good.

“Geez, you’re too serious now.”

She punches him in the shoulder, a cocky yet relieved grin on her features.

“Shut up.”

When Prompto comes jogging back to the bench, he’s initially afraid that the air had become more awkward between the two friends but to his relief, things are ok as they are talking, laughing, catching up. He sighs with relief and plops himself down between the two, earning a surprise yelp as his arms come up around both of their shoulders to bring them in for a tight hug as best as he could.

“Three amigos, rockin’ high school!” He shouts excitedly, gaining a laugh from Mios and an eye roll from Noctis. Prompto retracts his arm from Mios for a moment, digging into his pocket and pulling out his phone, opening the camera as his arm comes back around the girl’s shoulder. She leans back into his chest, smiling, Prompto smiling as well with his free hand holding up a peace sign near Noctis’ face, and Noctis harboring a smile that is more akin to a smirk as his arms are crossed over his chest and has a side glance to the camera, not totally facing it.

“It’s not my grade A camera but it’ll do for now. Say ‘Cheese!’”

 -

The three friends become incredibly close within the first few days of school. Mios gets dirty looks every now and then from the girls whenever she hangs out with Noctis, being seen talking to each other when they walk the hallways side by side. Though she doesn’t feel the least bothered by their stares as she knows it’s because of their jealousy of her friendship with the prince.

Sometimes, she would have random students go up to her and ask if Noctis is going out with anyone, being their indirect way of asking if she’s his girlfriend, to which she would just shrug and continue to do the task before her. She had no time for ridiculous and useless questions like that. She isn’t the prince’s customer service station and is not willing to answer any question they had about him.

One day after school, Mios, Prompto, and Noctis are walking off campus and when she thinks it’s safe, Mios throws her head back and groans loudly, completely fed up with all the people asking her question after question about Noctis. They aren’t afraid to ask a certified mage dozens of irrelevant questions about a prince they are too afraid to even breathe his way and today was one of the worse days.

Noctis laughs at the groaning while Prompto just gives her an empathetic smile and a pat on her back.

If Noctis’ fanclub aren’t asking Mios their questions, then they’re going up to their peppy blonde friend. The difference is that Mios has no patience for their questions and always just got up and leave while Prompto tries his best to be nice and answer whatever he can and is allowed to but even then, his patience can also be run thin from time to time.

“Ugh, I’m so sick of hearing your name, Noct! If I hear one more girl come up to me and say ‘Prince Noctis’, I’m actually going to throw myself into on-going traffic, I swear.” She whines, feeling a side of her head pound from an incoming headache. Noctis honestly feels bad that his friends have to go through this and tries to tell them every time to just ignore those girls like he does. He knows they’re kind people and he’s a kind person too but you can only be so kind to people before they run your sanity dry.

He sees his friends’ suffering and decides to do something for them.

“You guys need to get going somewhere?” He asks them suddenly, catching the two by surprise and earning a shake of the head from them both. “Alright, just follow me then.”

Mios and Prompto give each other quizzical looks before nodding and following behind their friend. The notion is sudden and to be honest, it makes them nervous but they know that Noctis wouldn’t lead them to their doom in any way… would he?

“Noct, if you’re leading us to our death, I am so haunting you.” Mios threatens.

“Make that two.” Prompto chirps in.

“Yeah, yeah.” Noctis dismisses.

Mios and Prompto had no idea where Noctis was taking them but eventually, they end up in front of an apartment building. Are they visiting someone? Does he know someone who lives there? They don’t ask questions or really say anything while they follow him up the stairs, watch pull out a key and unlock the door. He enters the apartment but Mios and Prompto just hang back in the hallway, unsure of what to do. Noctis doesn’t hear his friends removing their shoes behind him so he turns, only to be met with shocked expressions.

“What? You comin’ in?”

“U-uh…are we allowed to?” Prompto asks, making a hesitant step forward. Noctis gives them a strange look and opens the door wider for them.

“I own the place so…yeah? You can come in, you know.”

Prompto doesn’t make a move to enter, still hesitant, but Mios hears a door down the hall begin to open and she panics, afraid someone will think of them as suspicious or that they get the wrong idea and she runs in, pulling Prompto in and slamming the door shut. The act is quick and Noctis and Prompto give Mios a strange stare, who feels incredibly sheepish and unable to look them in the eye.

“I-I didn’t want anyone to think of anything weird if they saw two students standing outside of an apartment door, you…you know?” Her skittish behavior all of sudden is quite worrying but Prompto and Noctis could already tell that if they ask or say anything about it, she wouldn’t answer. Maybe another time.

Once they were fully inside the home, Mios and Prompto notice that, despite Noctis’ rather lazy and tired personality, the place is rather clean. No dishes in the sink, no trash laying around on the counters or table, just a really clean, organized apartment. The black-haired girl and blonde-haired boy spots the balcony and immediately become excited, rushing over, throwing the sliding glass door open, and stepping out on the wooden balcony, taking in the sights of the city. Noctis follows, amused, and slides the door closed as he leans on the railing, looking out the city with them. Their amazed and excited faces as they look out on the cityscape is adoring in a weird way and Noctis manages to sneak a photo of them.

“This view is beautiful.” Mios muses aloud, her voice soft and making her sound like she’s in a sort of daze and earns a nod of agreement from her two friends. She leans farther out on the railing, practically standing on her toes as if she wants to view the city closer.

Prompto looks out to the city ahead of and below them, enjoying the sights and people watching.

“Next time, I am definitely bringing my camera and taking some wide shot. Imagine this view as a print on a panoramic canvas. It’d definitely tie together any kind of room.”

Eventually, they go back inside and the first thing Mios does is move to the couch. She drops onto the couch with a loud ‘oof’, too tired to really think of anything else of it and just laid her head back, closing her eyes. She feels the weight shift near her and without opening her eyes, just assumed that Prompto and Noctis followed suit.

“So, you live alone now?” Mios asks, keeping her eyes closed but rolling her head a little towards the direction she’s assuming he sitting on. He nods but he knows she can’t see so, he hums his answer.

“Yeah. Clearly experiencing life with the least amount of royalties as possible. Wanted to be independent without dad’s advisors breathing down my neck the entire time. Have a job, too.”

She opens her eyes and sits up a little, her eyes wide with surprise.

“Oh really? Where at?”

“At a camera shop. It’s just part time and the pay isn’t too bad.”

“Wow, look at you, working man.” Mios teases.

“Step ahead of you, that’s for sure.” Noctis retorts, feeling smug as he thinks he has the upper-hand. But instead of receiving a pouting, annoyed look, she only smirks and dig into her book bag, pulling out a picture id that connects to a lanyard.

“I’ll have you know, I happen to be an official member of the Crownsguard!” 

Prompto and Noctis sit up, leaning forward to examine the id card a little closer.

“Wait, what!?” They both exclaim, to which pride swells within the girl.

“Yup! I was an in-training member for the past couple days but they officially made me a member yesterday! I start in a couple of days. Next step is to work my way up to become a member of the Circle.” The black-haired girl holds the id card in the palm of both of her hands, cherishing it and excited for the things to come, feeling closer and closer to achieving her dream.

While moving to put the id card back into her bag, Mios looks over in Prompto’s direction.

“What about you, Prom? Job yet?”

He shrugs but nods nonetheless, leaning back in the couch and his arms laying out on the back of the couch. “Eh, I have one but it’s one of those ‘good to start out’ places. It’s an independent owned business and the owner is really nice. It’s called ‘Thal’s Fabrics’.”

It’s Mios’ turn to sit up straight suddenly, giving him a wide-eyed look and a goofy grin.

“That’s my aunt’s shop!”

His eyes widen and then suddenly, a sort of clarity strikes within him when his jaw drops and he points to her.

“Oh! So, you must be the special prodigy she always talks about!”

She shrugs and has a hesitant laugh. “Ah hah…uh..I guess? I wouldn’t really call it ‘prodigy’ since I still struggle with certain magic types here and there.”

The three talk, enjoying their time together and just relaxing like any group of friends would. Noctis talks more about how he moved out and why, earning sympathy and validation of support from his two friends. Prompto talks about his photography and thinking about getting some form of self-defense training just in case. While Mios just talks about what had gone on at the private school and what she does as a member of the Crownsguard.

The sun is starting to set and Mios and Prompto decide it’s time to go home before it gets too dark. They both bid Noctis goodnight, thanking him for inviting them, and leave, walking together for a few minutes, talking and laughing with each other until they, too, must part ways since they live in opposite directions.

Prompto put in earbuds and start up a playlist on his phone as he thinks about the day. He really had a good day hanging out with Noctis and Mios and though sometimes he feels like a third wheel half the time, he still really enjoys being able to spend time with them. Thinking about Noctis and Mios and the conversations they have, makes it seem like they have history and though Prompto isn’t new to the fact that they were close friends since elementary school, he doesn’t ask them to delve on it a little further with him just so he could have an understanding on what’s going on between them.

Nonetheless, he can simply appreciate that he’s included by them, even if he might constantly fear that they’ll eventually faze him out. He had always planned on being friends with Noctis but Mios was never a part of the equation. She wasn’t an unwanted addition but her return made him fear replacement for a little while until she had reassured him that would never happen. He looks down his phone and opens up the photo gallery, smiling at a picture he took with Mios and Noctis on the first day of school. A happy trio that he knows is going to last for a long time. Even though they’ve merely been friends for a few days, Prompto can already tell they all feel incredibly close to each other.   

Noctis lays back on the couch, playing King’s Knight on his phone, a game Prompto had recommended to him and Mios, until he hears the door open and close. He instantly knows who it is when the blonde man walks in, a manila folder in hand.

“Evening, Noctis. I have a folder of reports from the palace for you today that I would very much like for you to analyze. It’s rather important so it’s in need of your attention relatively soon.” Ignis tells him, doing one of his daily night visits per request by the king himself. Noctis barely acknowledges him, just nodding and continuing to tap away on his phone, switching back and forth between playing King’s Knight and texting back his two friends in a group chat they had managed to set up earlier.

Ignis stares at him for a moment before sighing a little, moving over to the kitchen area to start making dinner for the prince. If anything, to fill the silence in between his preparations, he speaks up.

“I believe I met a classmate of yours today at the Citadel.”

No answer.

“She seems about your age. Rather young to be a part of the Crownsguard in my opinion but she’s proven her worth through her bountiful amounts of experience.”

“’s her name Mios?”

“That it is. A friend, I assume.”

“Mhmm.”

Ignis believes that it’s the end of their conversation, assuming Noctis wouldn’t answer him anymore but he soon hears footsteps and Noctis is leaning against the breakfast bar, taking in a deep whiff of the food that Ignis is preparing. He should’ve had his friends stay longer for his friend’s cooking, knowing they would eat it up and that Ignis would no doubt enjoy being showered with compliments. Another time then.

He helps the blonde with setting the table, moving to the cabinets to grabs plates, bowls, and small saucers and moves to the drawers to grab the chopsticks and any other utensils he thinks they would need.

Dinner is eventually served and they eat, holding conversations in short bursts as they ate. Mainly, it’s just talk about how their days went and Ignis is pleasantly surprised to hear about the fact that Noctis had brought over friends today, looking forward to report back to the worrisome king that his son does indeed have friends.

Noctis tries his best to listen when Ignis explains his day at the Citadel, what went on during the meeting among advisors, and a general synopsis over what the report is about but the more and more he speaks of his duties, the less interested Noctis becomes. It’s not that he doesn’t want to listen, it’s just that it’s too much to listen to, it’s practically overwhelming. He doesn’t want to get too into it, not wanting to be so open and vulnerable out of nowhere, not to mention he wouldn’t allow himself to. He sighs and just fakes it till he makes it, planning to go in for some sword training to release some stress.

The school year goes by in a breeze and suddenly, Noctis and his two friends are seniors in high school.

In between the time that they were freshmen to seniors, surprisingly, there were very little run ins with intense drama. True, there were instances where the friends would have drama in their life such as significant others and sometimes, they always needed the other for support if things were to happen.

Noctis had one or two other girlfriends but never serious and never long. Sometime during junior year, he had gotten a girlfriend when he felt that they connected well and things were swell for the 6 months they were together.

She was sweet and caring and kind, everything Noctis could ever ask for and she was incredibly compatible with Prompto as well. Her name was Invi and Noctis wanted to be serious with her about a month in but he wasn’t entirely sure how to and was scared of messing things up. In truth, he was afraid she only liked him because he was the prince, but she had proven to him time and time again that she doesn’t care for his royal status and just wanted to get to know him.

The only thing that was off putting about her was how her personality took a 180 degree turn whenever Mios was thrown into the mix. She never complained about her to Noctis but she always tried to intercept their plans to hang out or always steered him away from being anywhere near her. Noctis thought It was normal, but Mios and even Prompto could tell what was going on and she had to confront him about it. Truthfully, Mios didn’t like her because a girlfriend should never stand in the way of hanging out with your friends. She’s a girlfriend, not a mother and she just seemed too controlling. Prompto didn’t like her either and Mios could tell but he’s too nice of a person to ever say otherwise, only wanting what’s best for his best friend.

In the six months that Noctis and Invi were dating, he and Mios had practically stopped talking or hanging out and Prompto had to hang out with his best friends separately, becoming taxing for him sometimes because all he wanted to do was for the three of them to hang out like they always used to. Noctis wasn’t blind to what was happening and true, he was being a horrible friend for never confronting or saying anything about it to anyone and only letting it happen but five months and a half of no interaction what so ever was enough and Noctis decided to confront the issue himself.

He knocked on the door of Mios’ apartment, only to be greeted by Luto, who seemed tired and annoyed. Noctis wouldn’t put it past him to be though, ever since he was accepted into the Kingsglaive after graduating high school, Luto had been busier and more tired than ever. Nonetheless, he still tried to be the kind, easy going brother he was.

“Noct? What’s up?

“U-uh…can I…speak to Mios?”

“Lose your phone or something? Never mind, come in, I’ll go get her.”

The door shuts behind him when Noctis entered the apartment and watched the older man go over to a door, knocking on it and opening it a crack. There was mumbling and eventually, Luto left to go back into his room and eventually, Mios came out, wearing a black hoodie and athletic shorts. She yawns but moves over to the window on the far side of the living room, opening it. She had one leg over the railing, touching the fire escape, before she looked over at him and nods her head up, to which he understands and smiles softly, following close behind her.

Upon seeing the secret hide out still the way it was the last time he was here, he was getting a nostalgic feeling sitting in the lounger, legs crisscrossed, the cardboard sign still hanging on the back of the lounger, that is still intact and cleaned. He never made use of it after Mios had left even though she told him he could. It just hurt too much to be here alone without her. Mios sat on the lounger, hugging her knees tight to her chest relatively quiet, barely looking at him as she just stares out into the city.

“When was the last time we were here?” He asks, staring out into the city with her.

“I don’t know, Noct. When was the last time you talked to me?”

It was a little harsh than she intended but to say that she wasn’t hurt by everything that had happened would be a lie. She could tell she struck a chord of guilt within him when he visibly flinched and she sighed heavily, looking over at him.

“Invi’s a pretty nice girl, huh? You seem pretty serious.”

“Oh…sure.” He isn’t thrilled to be honest, in fact, he felt like things have strained for a while and he wasn’t sure why. If anything, he just seemed more irritable towards her lately. Maybe his lack of being with his friends could be it.

“Well, whatever you’re doing, keep doing it guess. I won’t get in the way.”

“Hold on, what does that mean?”

“Just that… I won’t get in the way. Invi doesn’t seem like she likes me, I’m going to be honest but you know what, if you really like her than I’d rather you be happy.”

He stared at her with wide eyes, not believing what he was hearing. He was half expecting her to lose it and yell at him about how awful his girlfriend was and yet here she was, talking about wanting him to be happy no matter what. He made up his mind then.

“Thank you.”

She sighs heavily and punches him in the shoulder, ignoring the pain in her heart.

“Shut up.”

Invi was really nice but, she was just too jealous of Mios and was always angry if they were to even breathe towards their way. Mios was incredibly willing to stay away for his sake if he was truly happy with her but Noctis didn’t want a relationship if it meant giving up his friend. So, Noctis had to end it.

He showed up to school the next day and broke things off with her, saying that he doesn’t ever want to be in a situation where he had to choose a girl over his friends. If she ever cared for him, she wouldn’t care if one of his friends is a female but she did care, way too much. Invi was upset and became accusatory towards him, making up claims of him and Mios being together or Mios tricked him into doing this but all she did was want him to be happy and she helped him come to the conclusion of breaking things up. The break up meant to be simple, but the heartbroken, angry girl made a huge scene, screaming at him in the middle of the hallway where everyone stared.

Mios and Prompto had arrived to the school and were at the end of the hallway, witnessing the entire commotion, but only saw their friend that needed some saving grace. Mios and Prompto exchange glances and nodded with determination, marching up to their friend, hooking his arms with theirs and dragged him away from the scene and the screaming girl.

“Thanks…” Noctis tells them under his breath and Prompto smiles to his friend, patting him on the back.

“Anytime, buddy.”  

Prompto had a girlfriend during the end of their Junior year for a few months as well and though she was incredibly nice, chill, and someone that was included amongst the three close-nit friends, there was a strange, drunken instance where she and Mios had… fooled around a little.

There was a party being held at Ember’s home, Prompto’s girlfriend, since her parents were away for business, and he and his two best friends were invited. Noctis and Mios had arrived together and they were greeted by their friend when the door was thrown open.

“Hey guys! C’mon in!” He shouts, excited and stinking of alcohol. Mios and Noctis were mildly concerned, never seeing their friend to be a drinker but they guess you learn something new every day. The blonde sensed his friends’ concern and looked down on himself and back up to them. He raised his hands, shaking them and his head.

“O-oh! No, I haven’t had anything to drink yet, I just spilled some on myself, promise.”

When his friends visibly relaxed, he does as well and usher them deeper into the house, joining the rest of the party. The party goers, hyped up on the vibe and alcohol, cheerfully greet their new guests before resuming their partying. Ember managed to find her way out of the sea of people and flung herself onto Prompto, her arms around his neck and his around her waist.

“Phew, lot of people in there. Oh, hey guys!” She detached herself from her blonde boyfriend to hug and greet the Prince and Mios, embracing them tightly. She grabs Mios’ hand and pulls her towards the drink table, handing her a plastic cup filled with alcohol, Mios was sure of that, just not entirely sure what it was. Meanwhile, Noctis and Prompto hang close to the wall, easing into the atmosphere by taking it all in slowly, not all at once much like their female friends were. Noctis watched Mios closely, knowing Luto told him to watch over her and low key threatened him if anything happened to her while Prompto watched Ember and completely enjoyed the fact that Mios and Ember got along greatly.

“You gonna tell her?” Noctis looked over at his friend quizzically, not entirely sure what he was implying but Prompto points his cup in the direction of the two girls, dancing and laughing together, loudly. Noctis gives him an incredulous look and shook his head, downing the rest of his cup.

“No idea what you’re talking about.”

“Yeah, sure. You have no idea what I’m talking about when I say I think you should tell Mios how you feel soon.”

“If it’ll let you sleep better at night, yeah, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Prompto laughed and pushed himself off the wall for another drink. He turns to face his friend, walking backward.

“Alright, alright, alright I know how to take a hint.”

Noctis is then left alone to his devices and looked down into his cup, finding it empty. He pushed himself off the wall to follow after Prompto and looked around, finding that he wasn’t able to find Mios or Ember. Where’d they go?

He looks down at his phone and realized that a lot more time passed than he realized as it was bordering midnight. He shrugged and went to get another drink and hang out with his friend, knowing that the two would show up eventually. Noctis reached down, about to pick up a drink when he feels a hand grab his and drag him out into the sea of dancing, sweating teens.

It was Prompto, wanting to dance and party with his best friend and just in time, as the alcohol finally took effect and Noctis was into it.

Prompto became Noctis’ hype man, cheering him on, clearing the floor and then everyone was cheering their prince on as he let the alcohol flow through his body. His vision became hazy and he wasn’t thinking straight but when he finally spots Mios, he becomes happier and pulls her into the throng of people and start dancing with her.

He thought she was having a good time but when he looks down at her, she doesn’t look alright, in fact, she just looked sick and that sobered up the prince quickly. He dragged her out and away from the people and to an isolated corner of the house and sat her down. He kneeled in front of her, hands on her cheeks as he examined her closely.

“You ok?”

She doesn’t nod, just stared down at the floor, near tears.

“Home…” She whimpers and Noctis knew he couldn’t take her home in her state, Luto and Aunt Thal would kill him so, he decided to take her to his apartment. Prompto turns the corner and sees his two friends, drunk off his rocker and still cheering into the ceiling. Noctis narrows his eyes at him and instantly took the drink out of his hand and set it down. Prompto doesn’t retaliate, in fact, he just sits down on the floor, leaning on the chair that Mios sat in and laid his head on her lap, nearly passing out.

Noctis sighed and goes into the heart of the party, looking for Ember, who was having a good time with her friends and classmates.

“Hey Em, we gotta go. I gotta take Mios and Prompto home, they’re pretty swamped. You need any help with cleaning up?” He shouts so he could be heard above the loud, bumping music.

“Nah, my friends and I got it! Thanks for coming over and tell Prompto I’ll call him tomorrow! Mios is a great kisser though, you should totally tell her!” She shouts and goes back to partying. Noctis had no idea what she was talking about but nonetheless, leaves with Mios on his back and Prompto’s arm around his shoulders as he drags the two of them back to his apartment which is relatively close.

Someone give him a gold medal because he somehow managed to make it home, dragging his two drunk friends all by himself with little to no problem. He first dropped Prompto onto his couch and then made his way into his bedroom, laying a passed out Mios on it. He tucks her, pulling the covers up to her chin and leaves the room as quietly as possible. He makes his way back into the living room, first stopping at the hallway closet to pull out a couple extra blankets and pillows.

He lifts Prompto’s head up, putting a pillow under it and draped a blanket over him and did the same for himself, sleeping on the other side of the couch.

The next morning, Prompto woke up with a headache and sits up slowly, groaning loudly as he felt incredibly sick. Lucky for him that it’s Saturday, otherwise, he would be going to school with the worst hangover ever. He looks over behind him and sees Noctis sleeping soundly and recognized that he was at his place.

“Prompto?” He turns and sees Mios sitting on her knees on the ground next to him, wearing one of Noctis’ shirts and sweatpants, something she had changed in to become more comfortable. She handed him a glass of water and two painkillers, to which he took appreciatively. She still looked incredibly upset, Prompto saw that she was last night but was too drunk to tell.

“Hey, you ok?” He asked, worried and when she shook her head, his worries were confirmed.

“Prompto, last night…Ember and I were really…We were drinking a lot and we were dancing and…” She took a breath shakily and continued. “Ember and I…kind of…fooled around a little. N-nothing too intimate! Just a lot of…making out and fondling…”

Prompto was taking all of this in, not believing what he was hearing. He loved Ember, he truly did and to know that his girlfriend and his best friend went and did…that, he felt absolutely heartbroken. Mios felt incredibly guilty and though she was drunk when it happened and she couldn’t control herself, it was still no excuse.

“Prompto, I am so sorry...” She wasn’t going to pin the blame on anyone, especially not Ember. She would rather have Prompto hate her than hate someone he’s in love with and practically perfect for him. She didn’t want to mess that up, not for her best friend.

He sighs heavily and hesitantly, puts a hand on the top of her head. She looks up wide eyed and is met with a soft smile.

“Don’t worry about it. I know you and I know you’d never hurt my intentionally.”

Despite his words, he still feels hurt but he could tell that Mios feels guilty enough and him yelling at her definitely wouldn’t help her. If anything, he just gets up and makes his way towards the door.

“I gotta go though, have to talk to Ember but turn that frown upside down, will ya? Things will be fine, don’t worry about it. I’ll see you later?”

That’s right, it’s Saturday and they usually have their weekly sleep-over study session every Saturday night at Noctis’ place. She gives it a little thought before giving him a small smile and nodding, seeing him off and staying behind with the still sleeping prince.

Prompto ran all the way to Ember’s home, finding that running cleared him of his headache. What was he going to say? What was she going to say? Was he going to leave her? Would she…would she leave him? He came up with question after question until he arrived to her house. He sighed heavily, jumping up a couple times, shaking out his wrists and then knocked on the door. Eventually, the door opened and Ember peeked her head out, glad to see Prompto.

“Hey babe…” She opened the door wider and steps forward, wrapping her arms around his neck and resting her head against his chest. He thought of her as adorable, dressed in her blue pastel pajama bottoms patterned with clouds, and a white hoodie. He leans down, holding her close, afraid of letting go because of what might happen. Maybe she doesn’t remember, then things might be ok. But then again, he knew and Mios knew too and he knew that would never be ok knowing that.

They don’t go inside. In fact, she leads him over to the porch swing that looked out on the yard and bustling street. They stay silent for a few moments, her leaning over and resting her head against his chest and tucked under his chin as he sits back, his arm around her shoulders and the other laying along the back of the porch swing.

“Last night was fun.” He said, trying to break the silence because although he enjoyed this serene peace with her, he knew that they needed to talk about it, even if she didn’t remember it.

“Sure…”

Silence and then eventually, a heavy sigh as she pushed off him and looks down at the grass, gripping the edge of the chair.

“Prompto…about last night.”

“I know.”

“You…You know?”

“Mios told me this morning…”

“Oh…”

There’s silence once more and Ember sighs heavily.

“I’m sorry.”

and she just had to end things with Prompto, feeling too guilty about the whole thing and that she needed to reevaluate her feelings. Prompto took it as well as he could but it still hurt that it had to happen. When Prompto arrived at Noctis’ apartment, he found that both of his friends were still there and when he told them what happened, Mios was extremely upset and guilt ridden but Prompto never blamed her or Ember. The break up was bittersweet and the both of them barely talk anymore but nonetheless, Prompto was ok.

Mios never really had someone she found interesting, too busy figuring out if it’s because she might have feelings for her friends. But she wanted to avoid dwelling in that kind of thing any longer than she should in fear of messing up her relationship with them. She didn’t want to ruin their friendship by making things awkward and she especially didn’t want to deal with the drama if anybody were to find out she may or may not have feelings for Noctis. She had witnessed first-hand what the girls who happened to be in any sort of romantic relationship with Noctis had to deal with, especially from the intense and extreme Noctis fan club. They were an extreme group of fan girls that made a rule to never be in a relationship with Noctis, rather they were obsessive and made sure that nothing and no one tainted their pure prince. 

Sometime during junior year, the extremists of the group would go after Mios on several occasions, feeling her friendship with their prince was threatening to his purity, to which Noctis told them off when one incident had ended up with Mios in the hospital and Prompto by her side until she was well enough to go home.

Mios remembered the accident vividly.

It was one of those days where she had to stay after school, studying in the library for an upcoming exam and was on her way home. She was just outside of the school’s doors and standing at the top of the steps when she felt a harsh shove and was sent flying down the concrete steps, rolling down harshly until she laid still at the bottom. She heard the distinct sound of shrill, girlish laughter and was met with the awful, disgusted looks of the girls that were in Noctis’ fanclub, the ones that harassed her and other girls constantly if they ever felt like Noctis’ purity was being threatened.

A girl with brown hair tied up in a ponytail, the leader she’s assuming, grabs a fistful of Mios’ hair and drags her over to the school fountain. Mios struggled, trying to get free but was constantly being kicked in the ribs and stomach by the other girls that surrounded her, gating her in with no chance of escape. It was one against five and the odds were held unfairly against her.

“You just think you’re so special, don’t you?”

“We’ve been watching you since elementary school and we know you did something to Prince Noctis.”

“We thought we got rid of you when you left suddenly but to see you’re back. You got more guts than we thought.”

Mios still tried to struggle her way out to freedom but the grip the other girl had on her hair was tight and hard.

“What do you want from me?!” She shouts, fearing for her life when she feels herself being picked up slightly and thrown into the fountain. She gasped for breath and tried to crawl away but is soon grabbed by her arms and a firm grip on the back of her neck. The girls laughed at her pitiful state and took this opportunity to beat out their frustrations on her, leaving her even more battered and bruise.

“What’s that old saying? If the accused sinks, they are innocent but if they float, they are a witch.”

Her eyes widen with fear and realization and she screams for help but is instantly forced down into the water, cutting off her screams as she was held down far longer than necessary. Mios had passed out eventually, tired out from struggling and unable to hold her breath for too long.

She doesn’t remember how she ended up at the hospital or what happened after blacking out. She just woke up at the hospital with Prompto, Luto, and Aunt Thal nearby, tired and worried until she woke up, feeling groggy and in pain all over.

That was the first time Mios ever saw her brother become angry and threatened to kill those girls. But the girl insisted that she’s fine and there’s no need for him to worry. She looked around the room to notice that Noctis wasn’t there and when asked about it, Prompto gives her a nervous look and shrugs, but his face suggested that he knew something she didn’t.

Noctis had confronted the girls, barging in during one of their weekly meetings. They all gasped excitedly and stood up, crowding him as they excitedly talked to him. Noctis wasn’t there for them though, he was just glaring angrily at the group of extremist girls and the head of the club who stood around in the back. He shoved past the group of excited girls and went straight to them, getting face to face with the cool faced, smug leader.

“You hurt my friend and I will never forgive you for that. When Mios wakes up, you’re being arrested for attempting murder and you all, for assisting her in this.” He threatens, absolutely trying his best to not start a fire or throw a desk across the room. The girls were afraid and the leader’s composure cracked a little but nonetheless, she tried to remain calm.

“My dear prince, we were only protecting you from that witch of a bitch. If she got too close, who knows what would happen. She might try to curse you or poison you, don’t you know? We’re only looking out for our dear prince.”

Noctis shook his head and leaves, not wanting any more to do with them and the people that hurt his best friend. She was in the hospital because of them and their selfish, delusional way of thinking. It could have killed her.

He stops out in the hallway and slams his fist on a locker door, creating an indent at how angry and worried he was. He sighs heavily and digs out his phone to see messages from Prompto from the time he told the blonde what he was planning to do, to now. Messages ranged from ‘Don’t do anything crazy’ and ‘Please don’t go killing anyone’ to ‘Mios is awake.’ And with that, he ran to the hospital.

Mios recovered eventually and the police arrested the six girls, with Noctis and Prompto by her side the whole time.

Nonetheless, they tried to not focus too much attention on things like that and tried to focus on school and getting things done in preparation of their future. Mios was getting closer and closer to becoming a member in the Circle, Prompto had managed to start up a photography club and found that he really enjoyed teaching and being taught the art of the camera and photography, while Noctis was slowly adjusting and warming up to his princely duties, taking the reports that Ignis brings in more seriously and trying his best to be ok with his father’s deteriorating health and his eventual marriage to Luna.

Noctis sighs heavily at just thinking about his conversation with Mios and Prompto and the revelation of his arranged marriage. How is he supposed to tell them when he loved Mios but also loved Luna as well? He never stopped writing back to her, he never stopped sending her gifts, he never really stopped thinking about her. But at the same time, he didn’t know how to stop thinking about his best friend. He promises himself that no matter what, he has to tell them. They’re his best friends and he tells them practically everything. Maybe it won’t be so bad, maybe Mios doesn’t have feelings for him like he does for her.

The door opens and he hears the sounds of his friends walking in, using the key he gave them for the door, shopping bags in hand from their trip to the grocery store. The three friends had been talking about getting an apartment together during senior year so they, too, could live a life of independence with each other instead of living with their families. They were becoming young adults and needed to learn how to survive on their own. Noctis suggested that they just move in with him but his apartment didn’t have two extra rooms, something that is highly required and so, Noctis, mainly Ignis, took on the responsibility to look for three bed, two bathroom apartments within the same building so they didn’t have to move too far.

“We’re home!” Prompto calls, running into the living room with Mios.

“Noct, you’re not gonna believe this! Look what we found!” Mios digs into the bags and pulls out a 4-cartridge pack of edible cookie dough. “You can only get this in that really expensive grocery store deep in downtown but they just started selling it here at the convenience store!” He thought of her as adorable because of her excitement over something so small and he smiles, getting up and examining the package. He remembered when he bought it for her when she was experiencing her time of the month. Noctis and Prompto rode the bus long and far to find it and she appreciated them so much for it, causing the worst week of the month for her to be a little less worse.

They tend to sleep over a lot now a days and now that it’s summer, they have a lot of time to spend with each other and binge watch movies and play video games all night long. Tonight is one of those nights and Noctis has a decent line up of movies for them, a mix of action and horror movies, Mios’ favorite. None of that rom-com shit only because they never focus on the plot and just spend the two hours laughing hysterically from making fun of it and its ridiculous plot half the time.

Mios skips into the bathroom to change into her comfortable clothes: sweatpants and her black hoodie. Meanwhile, Prompto and Noctis unload the bags and put them in their appropriate places in the kitchen.

“You remember Culpa? From elementary school.”

“What about him?”

“He was at the convenience store and he wouldn’t stop hitting on Mios.”

Noctis’ grip on the handle of the juice carton tightens, remembering exactly who Culpa is and why it irritates him so much to even think he has the right to hit on her after what happened back then.

“Mios was pretty pissed at him and socked him in the throat though, it was hilarious.” Prompto adds, chuckling at remembering the event and Noctis laughs as well, only imagining what had happened. Mios exits the bathroom, comfortable as can be and takes a seat in the bar stool.

“First, he accuses me of using magic on him on purpose, when it was an accident and then suddenly, he has the balls to try and hit on me like some old creep? He deserved a punch to the throat and more but he’s lucky Prom dragged me out.”

“Mio, you would have had the cops called on and it’s kind of hard to have a movie night with you in prison.” Prompto points out, putting the boxes of snacks away in the pantry. Noctis nods in agreement and Mios huffs out a breath in annoyance at how right her friends are. If it weren’t for them, her hot-temperedness would have landed her in prison a long time ago.

She looks in between her friends, talking and putting away the groceries and she realizes that she’s happy. Her life, as of right now, is pretty ok and she would never have it any other way. This summer is going to be amazing and her senior year is going to be the best.

She can only hope that they don’t run into anymore drama.

Too bad _hope_ is such a fickle thing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ~10,000 words and 19 pages later, I finally finish this. It's really long and basically tries to summarize the highs school experience of Mios, Prompto, and Noctis. Next chapter will be about Senior year and this chapter was already way too long to try and add that in.
> 
> Side note, I had no idea what kind of job Noctis had when he was in high school. I vaguely remember Ignis mentioning him having a kitchen job in the game when you're cooking with him at a campsite but the wikia said he worked at a camera shop and I was very unsure so I'll just put both and have him work at a restaurant his senior year. 
> 
> Kudos and comments very much appreciated and thank you so much for reading! See you next chapter!


	5. Can You Make It Last Forever?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> God, it's been so long since I've last updated and I am so sorry! Writer's block hit me hard in the middle of it but everyday, I tried to work on it slowly and through trial and error, I finally decided how to get this going in the way I want it to go.  
> 17 pages and 8k words later, here it is!

Where did the summer days go?

It was too short, that’s for sure. It’s most likely from all the working the three friends did. Noctis had quit his job at the camera shop and got a new one as a dishwasher in a relatively nice restaurant in town during the middle of summer and now, had managed to work his way up to line cook at the start of his senior year. Mios had finally gotten accepted into the Circle at the start of senior year, being initiated by the king himself, and was held a large ceremony surrounded by other chosen nominees, her friends, and family. While Prompto still works at Mios’ aunt’s shop, too happy and contempt to really leave as he viewed Aunt Thal to be a mother figure.

Senior year is upon them but stress came down harder than ever.

“I want to personally kick all those people who told us senior year would be easy in the throat.” Mios claims as she lands, face first, into a pillow on the couch. Prompto and Noctis plop down near her, dropping their rather heavy bags onto the ground and groaning in agreement. First day of school and already, they had a few quizzes and assignments coming up as soon as the beginning of next week. It isn’t all too bad, it’s just the fact that they are a rather lazy bunch so, truthfully, they had no one to blame but themselves if anything gets turned in late or turned in at all.

The only redeeming factor about senior year so far is that Mios at least had the lunch period with her two best friends and one class with each of them. Despite that, they would be too busy with their own thing to really hang out with each other as often as before. Mios’ work in the Circle, as well as her advanced classes that she must take to remain above the minimum education requirement to even stay in the Circle, takes up a majority of her time, leaving her little to no free time. Noctis and Prompto do admit that they miss seeing their friend around but appreciated any time to spend with her. Noctis was usually busy at the restaurant all while attempting to keep up with the reports from the Citadel that Ignis brings and Prompto, president of the Photography Club, was always busy with either teaching new recruits or managing club outings with the other members.

They’re growing up and they know that there’s a possibility that they wouldn’t remain friends forever. Eventually, they’d lose contact and mentally, they were preparing themselves for that by busying themselves with everything. But deep down, they knew that wouldn’t happen.

Just as the three friends are about to doze off, there is a scratching sound at the door and Noctis, unsurprisingly, gets up and rushes over to it. The young prince would usually just ignore the door and either leave it up to one of his friends getting it or until the person on the other side gave up but lately, once he heard the telltale signs of that specific scratching sound, he’s up in a flash. Mios turns her head in the pillow she’s clutching to peek one eye. The door opens and in comes running Umbra, Noctis following close by. Her muscles relax and becomes very uninterested in the dog, having seen it too many times as of late to be phased by it anymore. Prompto, on the other hand, shoots out of his spot on the couch to sit near the dog and pet it adoringly, reminding him of Prynah, a dog he told them he cared for when he was much younger.

It’s not like Mios didn’t like dogs, she loves them so much. The only thing she just didn’t like about _this_ dog is that it’s here for one thing and one thing only.

“You and Princess Lunafreya have been pretty chatty lately.” Did she mean for it to come out bitter? Of course not. It’s not like she can tell Noctis she doesn’t like Lunafreya, his soon-to-be fiancé. That would change absolutely nothing. Though, if the young witch could be honest for a moment, if she were to ever be confronted bout this issue by anyone, her only answer would be that she doesn’t exactly know why she doesn’t like the princess. She didn’t even have a good reason not to. She’s never met her before, only ever heard about her through Noctis.

And that was enough for her.  

Noctis shrugs but doesn’t sense her unintentional bitterness, too busy smiling and reading Lunafreya’s message back to him in their notebook they passed to each other. He scrambles over to his schoolbag to grab a pen to quickly write down a message back, something he clearly had in mind in between the time he last had the book to now. Once satisfied with his words, he gets up, power walks into his room and eventually comes back with a charm and sticker, the exact same ones she saw him win from the arcade a few weeks back. Once secured on the pages, he closes it and gives it back to Umbra and let him out with one last pat on the head.

“You gonna tell us what it says one day?” Prompto asks, his curiosity getting the better of him, to which Noctis only smirks, plops back on the couch for a nap.

“Yeah, right.”

With that, he’s out like a light. Mios sighs heavily, her mood dropping instantly and wanting nothing more than to leave to be on her own. Prompto notices the subtle change in his friend as soon as Umbra came in and had been keeping a watchful, worried eye on her.

“’m gonna go. Have a lot of homework. See ya…” She whispers, getting up, grabbing her bag, and making her way towards the door. Prompto gets up instantly and grabs her wrist, effectively stopping her. Her frown and defeated sighs don’t go unnoticed when she looks over her shoulder and finds that her friend never fails to catch what is wrong with her. Prompto may seem like the most happy-go-lucky guy amongst the group but he’s the most watchful, if anything. After all, he is training and working on his self-defense classes, his senses ought to be sharper than before.

Prompto looks around the living room, trying to find a quiet place to talk without disturbing the sleeping prince and decides to drag her into the bathroom. Is it the most convenient place to speak? Probably not, but it was better than just standing outside in the hallway where people could drop in all of a sudden.

Mios doesn’t resist and once in the bathroom, she goes over and sits on top of the covered toilet, bringing her knees up to her chest, hugging them tight and resting her chin on a knee as she just stares blankly at the tile floor. Prompto leans back on the door, hands shoved into his pockets as he, too, stares at the ground. They sit in relative silence for a moment before the blonde speaks up, albeit nervously.

"You...you ok?"

Mios only shrugs, to which he sighs.

"Your face says otherwise."

"So does yours."

This catches him off guard for a moment, afraid she's seen through him but holds his ground nonetheless. That's another conversation for another time.

"I'm serious Mios. Every time Umbra comes around, you get all upset. I know it's not because of the dog because that dog is the most precious thing in the world so it has to be because of Princess Lunafreya."

Mios tenses and he notices it. He’s getting through to her and that was a step towards the direction he wants to go. Though he will admit to himself that he seems to be coming off a little too direct than normal for but at least he is proud that he didn't waver in his words, not once.

"So, what if it is?" She says, though it's whispered and Prompto gives her a sympathetic look.

"You know, you can talk to me about anything. I'm here for you."

"I know you are but there's nothing wrong."

"It... It just feels like there is something and it's bad if you just hold it in." He tries to encourage her, wanting nothing more than for her to just confide in him, to trust him...to want him.

He's afraid though. Afraid that if he pushes too hard, he'll only push her further away and deeper into herself, so he quickly adds, "If you want, of course... you don't have to."

Mios can see that he's really trying and truthfully, she has nothing to hide from him. Maybe telling him might help her figure out the reason why she doesn’t like Luna. So, she sighs.

"I don't know, I just don't like Lunafreya." She finally admits and Prompto is relieved that they have some progress. He slides down the door, sitting on the floor to get comfortable.

"How come?"

She shrugs.

"That's the thing, I don't know. I just don't. I don't have a legitimate reason, I'm not jealous or anything either. I just..." She buries her face in her arms.

"I don't know."

Prompto frowns and gets up off the floor to stand in front of the small form of his friend, holding her tight against him. Mios returns the embrace and though it isn’t the cure all for her horrible feelings, it does lift the weight a little bit. She certainly doesn’t feel as suffocated from the guilt as before.

"Am...am I a bad person?"

"No."

One of her fears has been dashed away by that one word. A fear that she would be looked down upon by her friend and judged horribly just because her reasoning is practically non-existent is no more. She should have known better than to think Prompto would ever do that to her.

Once he feels her physically stop trembling, he kneels in front of her, putting his hands on either of her cheeks. He stares deep into her lavender eyes, finding that there was light and color again when she offers him a small smile.

Realizing that he has been holding her face in his hands for a while longer than he intended, at a close proximity to his own nonetheless, he squishes her cheeks together, causing the both of them to burst out laughing.

"Thanks, Prom."

"Anytime, Mio."

Prompto opens the door and watches as she leaves on a better note than previous.

The blonde walks back into the living room to see his friend still snoozing away, not a care in the world. He grabs his bag and leaves to go home as well, knowing he had a bunch of homework.

The thing is though, Prompto isn't worried about his homework at all. Even when he gets home and just flops back onto his bed, arms spread out, he just keeps thinking about his friend, his Mios...

His eyes widen and his heart is hammering in his chest.

_His_ Mios.

Did he really just say that? No way...did he...does he like Mios?

Her face close to his, her skin soft and supple against his fingertips, the way her eyes sparkle when he looked deep into them. All he wants to do is stare into them all day. Take the most beautiful pictures of her face with the light shining at perfect angle, reflecting against her eyes and he knows he won’t be able to do the shine in them any justice.

Prompto sits up and he is instantly hit with realization: He loves her.

He loves Mios so much. From the time he first met her all those years ago, when people called her a witch and he tried his best to defend her, when she came back and they took their after picture, when he laid his head on her lap when they were both piss drunk and Noctis had to drag them to his house, to now.

He never saw her as someone he could love like this, really viewing her as a little sister. But things are different now and the way he sees her is different too.

He loved her and if he had realized it a lot sooner, he knows he wouldn't have had a chance. He knew Noctis loved Mios, in a way that ran deep but things had changed once the summer before senior year started, when Mios was gone and Noctis talked to Luna more often.

But now, Noctis' feelings for Mios have been dulled down, stating how he wanted to focus on Luna a little more so, he had a chance. Prompto had a real chance with Mios. The only problem is, is Mios in the same place as he is?

The sudden realization of his feelings is overwhelming the blonde and his poor heart, beating rapidly as just the thought of Mios makes it race even faster. He begins to question whether or not he will be alright enough to be near her at school, let alone talk or text her.

He hears his phone ping once and then again soon after and finds a text from both Mios and Noct.

[ **Mios** ]

_Thanks for confronting me about earlier. I guess I needed that more than I thought._

[ **Noct** ]

_Did Mios seem weird earlier when Umbra came by?_

Prompto sighs heavily, one of happiness because of Mios but one of reluctance because of Noctis. He's the middle man after all and he's not going to be on the top of anyone's priority list. It's always someone else he's close to.

But it's ok, he can handle and deal with that. So long as his friends are happy, then he doesn't care.

[ **Prompto** ]

_I'm glad you're ok. Just come to me whenever something's on your mind. It's easier to let it out than keep it all in._

He should really listen to his own words, feeling the ever growing storm in his heart and mind fester, but remain incredibly locked up far away.

He stares at Noctis' text for some time, not entirely sure how he should answer. Should he tell him the truth? The conversation they had in the bathroom is something he probably should keep between him and Mios. Plus, Mios probably didn't want Noctis finding out either.

But, Noctis is his best friend and he should never lie to him, especially if it concerns Mios. Noctis trusted Prompto enough to confide in him about his crush on Mios so why shouldn't he confide in Noctis about all of this?

Prompto sighs heavily but texts back nonetheless.

[ **Prompto** ]

_Yeah, she did. I talked to her and everything while you fell asleep._

He tells him, sure that it wasn't important enough to hide from him.

Three dots pop up on the screen, indicating that Noctis had seen the message and is currently typing out a reply. Prompto's heart clenches and he realizes that he's actually nervous about what his friend might say.

[ **Noctis** ]

_Is everything alright? What did you guys talk about?_

Prompto is about to answer, his thumbs clacking away on the screen until another ping brings him out of his train of thought.

[ **Noctis** ]

_Is it bc of Luna?_

His blood turns cold and now, he's not so sure what to do. Of course, he isn't going to tell Noctis what they talked about, that would be betraying Mios and her trust in him, slashing all future hope of her confiding into him ever again and he doesn't know if he can live with the thought of her not trusting him.

Prompto shakes his head, despite the fact that Noctis can't see him, and messages him back quickly, lest to throw off any sort of suspicion.

[ **Prompto** ]

_No, definitely not. Idk if I can tell you, that's really between me and her and I dont want to be a dick friend and tell you if she doesnt want you to know._

Rereading his text, Prompto definitely did not throw off any sort of suspicion, in fact, he probably added to the pot. But he is going to be a loyal friend till the end and he isn't going to out Mios in anyway.

[ **Prompto** ]

_You know, you can always talk to her yourself. If you really want to know, she'd probably tell you than just going and asking me._

There, damage control.

A checkmark pops up next to the message, indicating that Noctis read the message and then, three dots pop up. They remain on the screen for quite some time, Prompto thinking that maybe the prince is considering his words carefully.

After a few, long minutes, a ping resounds in the room.

[ **Noctis** ]

_You really think she'd tell me?_

[ **Prompto** ]

_Doesn't hurt to try._

[ **Noctis** ]

_Yeah, ok._

[ **Prompto** ]

_You're a big boy, Noct. I'm sure you can handle talking to a girl. You already have the upper hand by being her friend._

[ **Noctis** ]

_Haha, alright. I'll let you know how it goes._

Prompto nods and drops his phone on his bed, getting up to find something to eat for dinner and then get around to doing his homework.

Once he ate and managed to do at least one of his assignment due the next day, Prompto checks his phone and finds three new messages from Mios, panicked ones too from what he could read from the message preview. He quickly opens it.

[ **Mios** ]

_Did you tell Noct about what I said?_

[ **Mios** ]

_Nah you probably didnt. You're not like that._

[ **Mios** ]

_Idk Noct just texted me asking what was wrong. I am cursed with observant friends for sure._

Prompto laughs breathily at the last text and quickly texts her back.

[ **Prompto** ]

_Nah, I didnt tell him anything. Just said we talked and that if he wanted to know anything, just to ask you._

[ **Prompto** ]

_Im not gonna tell him something like that without asking you first. Thats dickish._

**[Mios]**

_Thanks Prom. Idk if I want to tell him but we’ll just see where it goes. Tell you when I can._

Prompto nods and decides to just leave his phone on vibrate so he can concentrate on the rest of his homework without any disturbance. He loves his friends but he can’t flunk out of school for them.

When Prompto looks up from looking down after what felt like hours, he realizes he has a painful kink in his neck, a surefire sign that he should get up and stretch and take a small break. He leans back in the chair, stretching his arms and legs out, a strained groan followed by a large relieved sigh when he hears his joints pop and crack.

Once the stiffness disappears, he goes out to the kitchen to get some water and he nearly chokes on it when he realizes that it’s almost midnight. He goes over to check his phone but finds that there aren’t any messages waiting for him. His hearts sinks, thinking that his friends forgot about him but at the same time, there are a number of reasons as to why they never messaged him back and time is one of them. It’s late, so maybe they just fell asleep or maybe they never really got anywhere in their conversation, thus there’s nothing worth reporting.

Prompto wants to leave it and just talk to them about it tomorrow, but at the same time, he doesn’t want to go to school to find a heavy air of tension between his two best friends and not know what to do. He glances at the digital clock sitting on his nightstand one more time and sighs in defeat as he opens up his contact book.

He's lucky he doesn’t have to decide who to call as he knows for sure that Noctis would not answer. He’s most likely passed out like a bag of bricks so, he calls Mios. While he waits for her to answer, he hears his heart pounding away in his chest. He feels bad for calling her at such a late time but he knows that she would answer, especially knowing that they don’t call each other at such late times unless it’s important.

A few ringing tones later and Mios answers, though it’s evident in her groggy voice that she had been sleeping. Prompto feels a pang of guilt from disturbing his friend and possibly being a nuisance he always knew he was, but that guilt goes away when he finds that her tired, sleepy voice is cute.

“Hey…Sorry for calling so late.”

A rustle of sheets and a click could be heard in the background. She probably turned on the lamp by her bedside.

“No, it’s ok. I’m having a hard time sleeping anyway. What’s up?”

Guilt once again overwhelms him, thinking that she was about to go to sleep and yet here he is, disturbing her. Maybe he should hang up now.

“Are you sure? I can let you go back to sleep and we can talk tomorrow or something.”

Except the thing about being friends with Mios is that she’s a stubborn hard head and is not going to let him go until he spits it out.

“No, no, no. You already called me and I’m awake now. I’m gonna be mad if you woke me up for nothing so you might as well tell me.”

Prompto chuckles breathily, feeling somewhat better about the whole thing and leans back into his desk chair, feeling it tilt back a little.

“Alright, don’t be mad. Just… wanted to know if you and Noct talked.”

“Oh…yeah…” She sighs heavily and Prompto can already tell it probably didn’t go so well. He gets up and plops down onto the bed, his legs crossed and clutching a pillow close to his chest to get comfortable.

“Everything alright?”

“I guess? He asked what was wrong but I didn’t tell him about what we said in the bathroom…”

“Why not?”

“Because, it’s Noct and that’s his fiancé. I’m not gonna go up to my best friend and tell him I don’t like her. Plus, what’s the point anyway? It’s not gonna change anything at all. He’s not gonna stop marrying her just because a friend of his decided that they don’t like her y’know? That’s his business, not mine.”

“I guess but it’s still worth telling him.”

“How?”

“Well, for starters, he’s your friend.”

It’s silent on the other end and Prompto is suddenly afraid that he may have offended her or something but it’s a ridiculous thought as he hasn’t said anything worth offending.

“Yeah, you’re right. He’s been my best friend for so long…I shouldn’t start hiding things from him now.”

Prompto nods in agreement and voices his approval, not wanting to fear that his friends were hiding something from him or each other. They’re the tightest group of friends but even the tightest groups can break apart at the gust of a wind.

Prompto yawns and he hears Mios giggle a little, causing his heart to skip.

“I think it’s a good time to go to bed. Don’t worry about tomorrow, it won’t be awkward or anything, ok? I’ll talk to him in the morning. See ya in the courtyard as usual?”

“It’s a date.”

Kill him, he wants to die, he can’t believe he just said that.

“Sure, a date. G’night Prom.”

“Night Mios.”

Once the line goes dead, he flops back onto his back, sighing dreamily. He can’t believe he loves Mios. It feels like it came out of nowhere, but he assumes that he’s had these feelings for a long time and they’re coming out just now. He saw something in her that unlocked all of it and now, he can barely breathe, just thinking about it. At the same time, however, he’s absolutely terrified of the thought of her finding out and rejecting him, that she’s not in the same place as he is and only views him as a friend. Of course she does, what is he thinking? His feelings of joy and hope are quickly dashed by his inner self-destruction and has no hope of her liking him at all. She’s not there and most likely never would be in the same place as him.

He sighs heavily and turns in bed to lay on his side, clutching the pillow tighter against him.

Sleep is better than his thoughts.

-

The next morning, Prompto walks into school, his heart beating fast and feeling out of breath more than usual. He’s just afraid of things being awkward between his friends. Of course, he can try and fix it and maybe things will be ok but he doesn’t know how irreparable the damages will be. What if it’s unfixable?

“-good?”

“Duh.”

He hears the telltale voices of his friends and when he turns the corner into the courtyard, he sees Mios smiling with relief and Noctis playfully punching her on the shoulder.

“Can’t believe you thought that’s ok to keep from me. You think I’m gonna drop our entire friendship over something like that?”

“It’s about your fiancé, of course I’m gonna think that.”

“Alright, alright. I’ll mention her less and less then when you’re around.”

“If that’s ok, I’d really like that. I don’t know, just something about her makes my skin crawl. I’m sure she’s a great person but…” She shrugs.

Noctis nods in understanding and thinks back on every time he does talk about Lunafreya to Mios and can see that most of her answers were forced, if anything for his sake. Did Mios really not like Luna? He wonders why that is but even if he were to ask, it doesn’t seem like she really knows. The answer is in her somewhere but she’ll probably realize it later down the road and then, she’ll tell him. But for now, he won’t push anything.

Prompto is happy to see his friends are ok and happily bounds over to them, greeting them excitedly like he does every morning.

-

Despite the fact that senior year becomes increasingly stressful, Mios finds that Noctis has kept his word and that conversations about Luna are little to none between them and she gratefully appreciates his efforts around her. It’s not like she likes Noctis and it’s not like she’s jealous of Lunafreya, she just doesn’t like hearing about her so much. When she tells her friends in the Circle about her situation, many of them told her that she’s just jealous and really likes Noctis in the end but that isn’t true, he’s her childhood friend, of course she views him like a brother or something.

They’ve been friends for too long and if she even thinks about having feelings for him, she’s afraid it’ll ruin everything they had built between them. She doesn’t want to ruin it and she doesn’t want to make things awkward with the fact that he’s getting married soon. For a long time, those feelings have been suppressed in the deepest, darkest recesses of her mind and they will remain there.

Mios shakes her head and sighs heavily, focusing her attention back on to the meeting. Her coven, a term for small factions within the Circle, consists of her childhood friends Rayne, Viola, and Niella, all of whom had managed to get in for their connections in the Citadel, and their coven leader, Loanne. Compared to the other covens, Mios’ is one of the few that does not go out and accompany the Kingsglaive on missions beyond the walls, rather, they stay here at home and handle things at the Citadel and within the walls, much like the Crownsguard but with magic. Mios thought they would be doing more but realistically, she is nothing but a glorified secretary. The young witch is not unappreciative of this opportunity that she has but at the same time, she wishes to do more in order to expand her magical capabilities. She can only train on Noctis and the other mages for so long.

Their current meeting just spoke of upcoming events they must prepare for as well as an upcoming physical exam in which each mage must display a set of spells and techniques in order to keep their spot within the Circle. Mios isn’t worried one bit about the magic part of the exam, finding that aspect easier. Her biggest fear, though, is the weapons portion, a monitored skirmish between a Kingsglaive member and a Circle Mage.

Not every weapon in the world has the capability of being magic-based and having this type of weapon isn’t required for every person in the Citadel but there is the option to wield a weapon where it deals the most damage through magic rather than sharpness. A certain line of spell-based artillery is made available for those who choose to have one but for every mage within the Circle, it is a requirement to have at least one of these weapons in their arsenal and master the art of spellweapons. Whether it be daggers, a sword or even an axe. For Mios, she chose a rapier.

She can handle magic and weapons when they are separated but this portion of their exam is to test their abilities of fusing the two together in order to reach their ultimate peak as a guardian of the people.

 As long as the mage can land at least eight or more hits on the Kingsglaive member, they have passed but, it is not as simple as that as they must be able to complete the minimum number of hits within seven minutes. If they are unable to even land even one by the five-minute mark, they have failed that portion of the exam and is either removed from the organization or sent into a strict, physical training regime. She sighs heavily at the thought of performing under the watchful eyes of her king, prince, coven leader, and head mage. The pressure is on and if she wants to remain in this position, she must perform dutifully. But just having the thought of King Regis and Noctis watching her fight, two very important people in her life, makes her all the more tense.

Once the meeting is adjourned, she stands and stretches her back out, the chair legs scratching against the marble floor. The black-haired woman hears the excited talk from the other mages of different covens, rather excited for the fact that Noctis will be making an appearance. She only rolls her eyes and scoffs as she makes her way towards the main lobby to clock out and meet with Luto, something the two siblings have been doing again ever since her acceptance into the Circle. On the way out, she runs into Ignis, who appears to also be leaving and she offers him a smile, to which he returns.

“Evening, Iggy.”

“And a good evening to you, Mios.”

Ever since her acceptance, she and Ignis had been running into each other more often than not and had managed to kindle a friendship between them. It also helped that the two were also close friends with the Prince as they would meet whenever she was over at Noctis’ apartment for late night homework and he would come over with his reports and to make food.

“So, I have to ask, how in the world did you manage to talk Noct into coming to the exam viewing with the king?”

There is a small glint in his eye and the ever subtle twitch of the corner of his lips as he reaches up to adjust his glasses a little. He seems extremely proud of himself.

“Ah well, it was just the matter of having a friendly little wager between two friends.”

Noctis must have been an idiot if he thought he could take on Ignis at some sort of game. The man might seem to be all class, poise, and maturity, but under that stiff and tall demeanor, is someone who is cunning and extremely calculative. Over the summer before senior year, Prompto had talked Ignis into getting King’s Knight. Though Ignis was rather clueless on how to play at first, with enough strategizing and trial and error, their spectacled friend, who was still a relatively low level compared to his younger, more high-leveled friends, had managed to beat them out somehow and that was the last time Mios would ever challenge Ignis at anything again.

As they near the main lobby, Ignis turns and stops beside Mios, causing her to stop as well and turn towards him. He puts a hand on her shoulder, squeezing it reassuringly, which lessens the tension in her entire body somewhat.

“Your appearance for your physical is not due for a few days so, if you are needing any sort of training or advice on fusing your rapier with magic, please do not hesitate to reach me?”

She looks up at him and smiles, nodding. It is rare, but when Ignis cares for his friends, it really shows through his words and his actions.

“I will. Have a good night, Ignis.”

“And you as well.”

And with that, they part ways and Mios leaves the Citadel with Luto, talking about their days on their way back home.

As Mios gets ready for bed, toothbrush hanging from her mouth, Luto walks into the bathroom, his arm leaning on the frame and other on his hip. She turns her attention towards her brother and raises an eyebrow.

“So, y’know your physical is coming up right?”

She nods, making a humming noise of confirmation as she continues brushing, eventually spitting and rinsing her mouth out.

“So you also know that I can’t be your partner?”

“What?!” She couldn’t believe her ears. Actually, she could. She had been told time and time again that her brother wouldn’t be allowed to partake in her exam and she had heeded those words but at the same time, she had hoped they were wrong. Taking the test with Luto as her sparring partner would have calmed her nerves a lot but now she is getting actual confirmation from the Kingsglaive member himself that he isn’t allowed to be her partner and she feels ill all over again. Mios should have been more prepared for this than naively hoping things would go her way. Life isn’t like that, of course.

Luto notices the discomfort and fear in his sister and sighs heavily, placing a hand on top of her head.

“I know, I tried talking to the king and Noctis about it but rules are rules and the king is all about fairness. Having siblings take the exam together is practically cheating in their eyes so I’m partnered up with mages that take their exam the day before or after yours.” He explains, though it doesn’t help the unsettling feeling in her gut. Mios can only nod and brushes past her brother, wanting nothing more than to sleep.

“Yeah, I get it…Goodnight.” And with that, she closes the door on him and goes to bed, though she is unsuccessful in falling asleep. She doesn’t mean to brush her brother off the way she did but she’s too afraid, too nervous of her exam to even consider him right now.

Days had gone by and to his word, Ignis assisted Mios in her training, finding the act of infusing her weapon with magic becoming easier to handle until eventually, it’s practically third nature. She felt bothersome for asking Ignis’ help so often but he’s done so well in teaching her that she can only learn from someone who she views as the best. In exchange for his help with her exams, she brings him homemade baked goods, Altissian recipes she used from her mother’s old cookbook when they used to live in Altissia, as well as replenishing any and all of his sewing materials for him from her aunt’s shop. He insists on not needing any form of repayment from her and that seeing her succeed is enough for him but he still appreciates her efforts.

The day before she is scheduled to make her appearance, Ignis surprises Mios by having Noctis becoming her sparring partner, a match that she found incredibly fun but at the same time, challenging. She knows how to handle herself on the battlefield against Noctis when it came to either weapons or magic but now the fusion of the two turns the tides of battle in Noctis’ favor, slowly demoralizing her about this whole exam. Awful thoughts fly around in her mind, thoughts of shame, of disappointing her friends and family, of her losing everything she worked so hard for. Mios was so distracted and so deep in her mind that she loses complete focus.

“Don’t focus on such remedial things! Focus on the target and the target alone!” Ignis coaches from the sidelines, seeing that Mios is too in her own head to properly fuse her rapier with a fire spell and counter Noctis’ incoming attack.

But it is too late as Noctis warps behind her, his leg kicking her legs from right under her, causing the girl to fall to the ground with a thud. Ignis sighs heavily and Noctis bends forward slightly, catching his breath as Mios did put up quite a fight before her downfall. He offers her a hand but she only bats it away with her own, picking herself and her rapier up, a look of absolute frustration and shame on her face.

“That’s it. I’m going to get kicked out of the Circle just because I can’t do this one stupid thing.” Mios hisses in frustration, gripping the hilt of the rapier tightly in her fist. Her life’s hard work all boiled down to this one exam and she can’t get one thing right. She feels like an absolute failure, like she had just let everybody down but that is not the case as Noctis and Ignis both put their hands on her shoulders, reassuring her.

“Mios, I need you to stop thinking about everything for one second and just breathe. Can you do that for me?” Ignis asks, both of his hands on her shoulders now and in front of her. The bespectacled man sees so much potential in her and the fact that she couldn’t hurt him. To see his friends suffer is never a good time for Ignis and he wants to be there for them, encouraging them and lifting their spirits. He knows she can do it, she just needed to know too.

Mios sighs heavily and nods, closing her eyes and just focusing on her breathing. With her mind clear, she can feel the oxygen entering her nostrils, into her lungs, and traveling out again. It’s strange but calming and she feels a little confident in herself to just try again. She opens her eyes and Ignis sees a small spark of determination in her eyes and he lets go, a small smile gracing his feature.

“Alright, let’s try this again.”

\---

In one fell swoop, Noctis falls onto his bottom, the icy point of a frozen rapier pressing into his chest as he looks up at a surprised, but victorious Mios. Her facial features change from serious to elation as she sheathes her rapier and starts jumping for joy towards Ignis, happy and so proud of herself that she’s done it. Noctis rolls onto his side, leaning on his forearm and he feels his heart swell from seeing his friend so happy his heart even beats a little faster at the thought of her looking incredibly adorable in his eyes. Does he still have feelings of love towards her? He thinks so. But no matter what, he wants to protect her and hide them from the hurt that is his eventual marriage.

He tosses the idea around in his mind a little as he picks himself up from the ground, patting his clothes of the dirt and dust. Of course he still loves Mios. She holds a special place in his heart and what if, just what if he indulged himself and just let him fall completely in love for his childhood best friend? What if he just gathered the courage to go up to her and tell her he loves her? Would she say she loves him too? Would she accept him? All of him?

“Thanks so much Noct!” She shakes him out of his train of thought by embracing him tightly and he smiles, returning the embrace. However, reality hits him once more when she detaches herself from him.

Even if they could be together, even if they loved each other so deeply and completely, the truth of the matter is that he’s already promised to someone else. He’s arranged to marry Luna to bring about peace between Niflheim and Lucis and he can’t break that treaty, he can’t break Luna’s heart because he loves her as well. He just can’t bring himself to break Mios’ heart, who will no doubt only become a casualty in his mess.

But he’ll be satisfied enough by being her friend. Or at least, try to.

\---

The day of the exam is finally here and Mios feels her nerves acting up and flying all over the place. She awaits outside the training grounds, fiddling with the hem of her sleeve, wearing the formal black Circle robes that every Circle Mage wears for special occasions and exams. She goes over Ignis’ words in her head, going through the process of fusing magic with her rapier over and over and over again to make sure she doesn’t forget it. She is missing school for this and has been getting texts from Prompto and her friends all day, wishing her luck and telling her that she will do amazing because she worked so hard for this. Aunt Thalassius had been sending her ‘good luck!’ and ‘I love you!’ messages all morning to her and even Luto had come to visit with her before he left for a mission. She’s surrounded by all of this love and support that she feels the pressure to succeed even worse. Six forbid, she fails, she might actually off herself as she doesn’t know if she will have the heart and strength to face them.

The large doors that lead to the Kingsglaive Training Grounds at HQ, the place where she is to perform her physical, finally open, followed by the sounds of the mage and her Glaive partner leaving the arena, looking disheveled but chatting happily to each other. That’s someone who seems extremely proud of their performance, hiking up Mios’ own anxiety even more so.

She stands at the entrance, tall but stiff, proud but scared, waiting for the announcement of her name.

“Siviola, Mios.”

She takes a heavy breath, puts her hood up, and marches into the arena.

_‘Stay calm, everything is going to be ok. Everything is going to be ok,’_

“Mios.”

She stops in the middle of her trek and turns around to see Noctis, donning a suit that she has never seen before, at the entrance. Her eyes widen as he gives her a reassuring smile.

“Good luck out there.”

She returns his smile with one of her own but her hood hides it from him, offering him only a nod as she looks forward and continues her march into the stadium, feeling confident. Seeing Noctis, telling her good luck, made her just a little less afraid.  

Once out in the barren training grounds, the mage stands before her King and Prince, head held high and standing tall. She bows before them, showing her respect. Regis always saw Mios like a daughter to him and to see her here now before him, about to take one of the most rigorous physical exams that the Citadel requires of their fighters, he feels pride swell in him as her Glaive partner strolls in. She turns her attention to the Glaive and recognizes the light brown skinned man as one of her brother’s friends. Pelna, she believes his name to be. They had met once or twice on the very rare occasion that Luto goes out drinking with him and a few other members of the Glaive and it would be Pelna who is dragging her drunk-off-his-rocker brother to his room at home and seeing himself out.

When she removes her hood, Pelna recognizes her as well and dons a crooked smile as he waves at her.

“Hey kiddo!”

She smiles and offers him a small smile and wave as they receive their standard instructions from the King. She turns to look at Pelna and he catches her, giving her a nod.

“Good luck.” And with that, he puts his hood up and face mask on, Mios nodding and following to do the same with her hood. Anyone can argue that having their hoods up during battle can affect their peripheral vision but it only required them to focus in on their surroundings with their hearing as well.

As instructed, the two draw their weapons, Mios with her rapier and Pelna with his sickle sword and they stand there, the air quiet and tense as King Regis holds his hand up and then motions it down, signifying the start of the exam and the countdown from seven minutes.

Mios starts off the bat with infusing her rapier with a thunder element, granting her a boost in her speed as she lunges forward towards him but Pelna disappears and teleports away, even farther from her. What he lacks in experience, he makes up for in quick wit and now, the exam doesn’t become a show of power and strength, rather a show of who’s faster.

 Mios chases after him onto the large towering ruin that is stationed in the center of the arena, meant for height training and strategies. Though Pelna believes that he has an advantage due to his knowledge of the terrain, Mios had been here dozens of times, watching her brother train and getting to know the terrain as well. Pelna loses sight of Mios on his climb to the top in order to lose her but she appears behind him, striking him three times with her rapier in quick succession. The Glaive groans in pain as electricity courses through him but it’s not powerful enough to completely stun him as he manages to warp away from her. She follows closely after him, infusing her rapier with ice now to deal slightly heavier damage to him though she loses her speed slightly. He uses this to his advantage to throw his weapon towards but past her, warping behind her to elbow her back, sending her to the ground of the base arena. Mios manages to catch herself though, landing on a platform. She chases after him quickly, changing the elements of her weapon to thunder to catch up to him, facing him head on. Once she is close enough, she manages to quickly change elements to fire, landing four powerful hits on him.

“Yes!” She cheers, retreating back to a platform away from him. One more hit, just _one more_ and she passes the exam, that’s all she needs. Eight strikes on the man.

Pelna smirks and waves at her from his own platform, slightly higher up than her.

“Nice job kid! But don’t lose your footing now.” He warns as he throws his sickle sword towards her, appearing right in front of her and punching her square in the gut. She yells in pain and surprise as she falls to her knees, her rapier clattering to a platform way below. Pelna is about to send her off the platform with a swift kick to the side but she manages to recompose herself as quickly as she can and dodges it by rolling back ad slightly away from him. Her hood is off now and her hair in disarray and in her face but she has a determined, angered look on her features.

With a yell, she slams her hands onto the platform and ice quickly spreads from her fingers and cover the ground, causing Pelna to practically slip off. In a panic, he throws his weapon towards the sky to avoid plummeting to the ground while Mios dives off the platform and towards her rapier.

“One-minute remaining!”

“C’mon, Mios!”

Rapier now in hand, she stares up at Pelna who only looks down at her, trying to interpret her next move. Eyes intense, there is a quiet before she launches herself towards him as he does the same, planning to strike her down, her rapier on fire.

They pass each other, slicing at the other as Pelna lands on the platform below and Mios pulls herself up onto a platform above.

“Time!”

Pelna falls to his knee, clutching his side as medics run out to the injured Glaive, all the while Mios stands tall on the high platform, donning the look of extreme pride and relief.

Noctis is heard cheering from the viewing box he and his father were occupying, unable to contain his excitement as he throws his Engine blade and warps over to her, hugging her tight as they both rejoiced. Though Regis really should lecture his son for breaking formalities, he decides against it and just smiles, happy to see the two friends cheering. He stands and his advisors, shield, and the exam coordinator all leave, leaving the arena empty as Mios’ exam is the last one for the day.

To be on the high platform, having just completed her exam, with Noctis, her best friend, celebrating her passing with her, she is on an adrenaline high and she can’t help but kiss him.

He stops, freezes even, but once his mind finally caught up with him, he returns the kiss, holding her close, throwing everything out the window just for this.

The two separate and Mios stares up at him, eyes wide as they realized what exactly they’ve done.

Her heart is beating like crazy, Noctis’ as well as they wonder what exactly do they do now. Searching his eyes for answers as they are both too shocked to speak, she wants to ask him, if it was even possible…

_Can you make this last forever?_

The heartbreak in his eyes as thoughts of Lunafreya invades his mind becomes her answer.

_No…I can’t._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [ The Kingsglaive Training Grounds is based off of the concept image on the wikia. ](http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Kingsglaive_\(group\)?file=Kingsglaive-Traning-Ground-Edvige-Faini-KGFFXV.png%20)
> 
> I'm thinking about making a playlist for this fic as the title of the work itself and the chapters are usually song lyrics or inspired by songs. Thank you so much for reading and being patient with me as I try my best to get out as much as I can. 
> 
> As always, kudos and comments are always appreciated!


	6. Together but Still Alone

Five.

The number of days that has passed after the kiss. The number of days Mios and Noctis haven’t spoken a word to each other, let alone see each other. The number of days Prompto had to suffer as he watched one of his friends completely avoid the both of them like the plague.

After the kiss, Mios just ran off, leaving him alone on the platform and just disappeared. He tried to go after her but she just refused to see him after that. He sent her texts that she never replied to, visited her at home but never came to the door herself. He didn’t even see her in class anymore, to which he found out that she purposely avoided and had made up excuses to their teacher, saying she had important business at the Citadel to attend, which is a lie as Ignis never saw her around much.

Five whole days had passed and Prompto, like Noctis, never saw his friend again but, unlike Noctis, he doesn’t know why. Prompto kept blaming himself, thinking that it was something he did but he couldn’t figure out what he had done or if he had done anything at all. Did he forget her birthday? No, he gave her a photo album as a present. What could it be? For the life of him, he couldn’t figure anything out. Prompto even asked Noctis a few times if he’s seen Mios or heard anything from her but every time, Noctis would only reply with a “I wish I did, Prom”, a hurt but guilty look on his face and Prompto, being the smart boy he is, manages to piece together that Mios isn’t upset with him, rather with Noctis.

The weekend has finally arrived and Prompto and Noctis are on the way to his place to hang out, something Prompto insisted as he wants to try and figure out what exactly happened and to also be there for his best friend as Noctis looked like such a mess worrying about Mios all this week. He tried to get into contact with Mios as well, but from what Thalassius tells him, Mios hasn’t been doing so well and is extremely worried about her.

“She spends a lot of her time on the roof by herself. Have you been up there? It used to be a special place for her and Prince Noctis when they were much younger. Sometimes, I’m afraid she’ll… Never mind.” She tells him, sighing heavily as she continues to work, ending the conversation there. Even Luto looks even more stressed out and tired than usual, having to hear Mios cry at night and he would be there for her, comforting her until she eventually passed out. When he and Noctis do run into each other, he only glares at him and leaves without saying a word, only adding to the prince’s guilty conscious. Everyone around him seems to be affected by what happened between Noctis and Mios and Prompto, with his big heart, is suffering from seeing everyone worry.

Once at the apartment, Noctis just slumps down onto the couch, Prompto following suit as they just stare at the TV that remains off. They sit in relative silence for a while and Prompto wants to speak up, he does, but the words are just stuck in his throat.

“About…About Mios...”

Prompto looks up and listens with earnest as Noctis just stares at his hands, unable to look his friend in the eye.

“After the exam… I got excited and celebrated with her on the training grounds and she...” He swallows, trying his best to explain to the blonde what happened because after all, he deserved to know.

“We kissed…”

Prompto’s eyes widen and he feels his heart stop.

“You…you what?”

“We kissed… and I think she wanted to… ask me something but I just kept thinking about Luna the entire time and I think she realized that to. She ran off after that and I lost sight of her.”

Noctis feels guilty all over again from recounting the incident with Prompto. The heartbreak he saw in her eyes was enough to tear him a part on the inside. He knew he shouldn’t have returned it. He knew he shouldn’t have gone out there to be with her…

He knew he shouldn’t have thought of Luna.

But he did and he can’t take it back. No matter how hard he tries, he can’t just…ignore his duties.

Prompto sees the destroyed look of his friend and doesn’t question him any further about the whole thing, afraid he might inflict even more internal pain. Prompto scoots closer to his friend and just puts a hand on his shoulder, squeezing it for reassurance that he is here for him and Noctis, quietly, appreciates it so much. Lately, it just feels like the whole world is against him.

“I fucked up so bad, Prom.” Noctis sighs heavily, leaning forward and holding his head low in shame and pain.

“She’ll come around eventually. She’s probably just… figuring some things out. All we can do is just give her some space and when she comes back, we’ll be there for her.” Prompto tries to cheer up the hurting prince, all the while ignoring his own feelings.

Noctis and Mios kissed.

His heart hurts every time he thinks about it.

He thought Noctis’ feelings for her had dwindled down, even saying so himself that he wanted to focus on Luna bit more during the summer before senior year. Prompto actually thought he had a chance but after what just happen? He doesn’t think Mios will want anything to do with relationships for a long time. What does that mean for her and Noctis though? As awful of a thought it is, Prompto hopes that nothing comes out of this and they can all just go back to being friends and Prompto will eventually gain the courage to tell her how much he loves her. It’s awful and selfish but he can’t help it… He’s only human.

“Thanks Prompto for…being here.”

“Always with you, buddy.”

\---

Even more time passes and another week is gone without Mios but on the upside, she’s in class again, albeit still actively ignoring Noctis and Prompto. As Noctis tries so hard to go after her and Prompto tries his best to talk to her, she just shuts them and the world out.

According to Ignis, Mios just completes the task she is given and then rushes straight home even though they usually walk to the main entrance together, her waiting for him.

“I do hope she is alright…”

Noctis hurts even more from that.

“Y-yeah…me too.”

Almost a month has passed though and finally, Noctis has had enough. A whole month of him feeling absolutely shit about himself, a whole month of feeling so guilty that he hurt his best friend so horribly, a whole month of him trying to reach out to her so they can sit down and talk about what happened.

The final straw had been when Prompto told him what her aunt had said, about how Mios usually stayed on the roof for a long time, the place where it was their little secret hideout. He hadn’t been there for so long, maybe he can find her there and finally confront her about the whole thing.

It took a couple of days of scouting the area but when he had found the closest and highest balcony near the roof of her building, he managed to warp there. He’s not the greatest at warping just yet, still practicing even but he manages to get on to the roof with ease, making his sword disappear when he recomposed himself on the roof. What he finds, or rather what he didn’t find, completely shatters his heart.

The roof was cleared and devoid of any sign of her ever being there. The chairs were gone, the umbrella that they used for shade was gone, all of it. All that was left were the signs that had hung on the backs of the chairs, having been stepped on and abandoned, clearly left behind. The sign that still said King on it and the other that still said Guard that they had made together, worn down from age and now completely irreparable from mistreat.  Mios had cleaned everything up, she made one of the most precious things that connected him to her disappear.

And that was enough to set him off. 

A whole month without her has been killing him so deeply and finally, he’s going to do something about it. He’s done with feeling shitty about himself, now he’s just straight up pissed.

After school, he ran after her, shouting her name.

“Mios!” 

The girl jumps at being called so suddenly, and loudly, and turns to look over her shoulder, only to see her friend, with a determined look in his eyes to reach her and she does the only thing she can think of.

Mios starts running.

But Noctis doesn’t give up, giving chase to her. She just keeps running from him though, bobbing and weaving through the crowd of students, trying to lose him.

“Mios, we have to talk!”

“No, we don’t!”

He chases her through the courtyard, down the grand steps leading up to the school, and eventually, into a park, a secluded area that doesn’t usually have much civilian traffic, where he finally manages to grab a hold of her wrist, effectively stopping her.

“You’ve been ignoring me and Prompto for almost a month now, you’ve been skipping class on purpose just to avoid us! What the hell did I do!?” He shouts, unable to hold back the flood of emotions anymore, the bottle he’s been stuffing and hiding away finally exploding. “We have to talk this out, come on, we’re best friends for Six sake!” She still doesn’t say anything to him and he’s just desperate now. All he wants is his friend back.

“Mios, please talk to me.” He’s practically begging.

She doesn’t turn to face him, only stares ahead of her with her wrist ensnared in his grip.

“What is there to talk about? I made a mistake. It was the adrenaline. There’s nothing, ok?”

“That is such bullshit and you know it.”

She finally turns towards him, anger evident on her features but, so are the tears on her cheeks and in her eyes.

“You know what’s bullshit? My feelings for you!” She shouts, managing to snatch her wrist out of his grasp but she doesn’t run off, she stays put and stands her ground.

“I love you, ok? I love you so fucking much it hurts. I’ve been lying to myself and to you about how I feel because I was so scared it’s going to mess everything up…” Mios is sobbing as she collapses onto the ground, covering her face to hide the shame and try to quiet her sobs. “I don’t want our friendship to end over something so stupid…”

Everything she has been feeling for the past month is finally out in the open. Her pain and suffering over a mistake she made. The guilt from putting Noctis in such a compromising position about the whole thing was the main reason she stayed away. It was never Noctis’ fault, she was the one who kissed him first and she shouldn’t have, she knew that, but it happened and now, she’s facing the consequences of it. She never meant for Noctis to blame himself over the whole thing either, Prompto had told her in the many text messages he sent her that she never replied to. It served to worsen her guilt even further about the whole thing, prompting her to just stay even further away. Because to her, it’s just best like that.  

Noctis looks down on his trembling friend and he sighs deeply, kneeling in front of her, embracing her curled up form.

“Believe it or not…I love you too.”

He’ll be open about his feelings, he’ll be honest with her. Because at this moment, if he’s anything else, he’s afraid she might get the wrong idea about him. All Noctis truly cares about is to just be there for his friend, who clearly needed him so much.

“You’re just saying that…” Her sobs have slowed but not stop. A part of her is elated and so incredibly happy to hear that he loves her too but the self-destructive part is telling her that he’s just saying it out of pity. Just like that kiss, he only kissed her back because of the adrenaline and excitement as well. There’s no way he could love her. The more rational part is telling her what everyone already knows.

It doesn’t matter. Because no matter what, she isn’t going to be the one who ends up with him.

“If you want to believe that…I’m just telling you how I feel and I want you to know…that this doesn’t change anything. I’m still your friend. I still love you.” He tells her over and over again as he rubs her back and just holds her tight, wanting her to believe him. He hasn’t given her any reason to not trust his words, especially about this matter. His words, feelings, and heart are true. He’s just hoping that she can see it too.

Mios sniffles and pulls back out of his grasp slightly, looking up at him. Her eyes are swollen, her cheeks are stained with her tears and the little mascara she had put on is running. She must look like an absolute mess, but Noctis only sees her for the beautiful woman she always is and has been.

He reaches up with both hands, places them on her cheeks, and swipe away at her tears, holding her face gently.

“I love you…Gods, I’ve been wanting to tell you for so long.”

Mios smiles at him, allowing herself to be unbelievably happy and relieved, quieting the self-destructive and the rational parts. She feels like she’s floating and she thinks, maybe, just maybe, things will work out and she and Noctis can actually be together. But dreams have to end and she has to wake up and face reality head on as this, the two of them, can never happen. Even if they could try to find a way to work things out, in the end, Noctis will be married to Lunafreya. The treaty must be met. He has a duty to his people, a role in history that will be documented and remembered. Mios? She is nothing but cannon fodder, someone destined to die with no one to remember her name, her face, her story. A drop of water in a large ocean.

She truly has no place beside Noctis other than to protect him, to die for him, to make sure he’s on the right track and get him to wherever he needs to go.

Her smile and gaze drop and she gently pulls Noctis’ hands from her face but holds them in hers.

“But…Lady Lunafreya.”

He sighs heavily at that and moves to sit down comfortably on the grass, remaining close to her. Ignis can take care of the grass stains on his pants later.

“Yeah…I know.”

They sit in silence, Mios rubbing away the rest of her tears and mascara with the sleeve of her uniform and brings her knees up, hugging them to her chest as she rests her chin on one of them.

“What…What do we do now?”

There’s no way they can go back to just being friends, could they? After all of this? They love each other so much and now that it’s out in the open, things might end up awkward.

“We’re still gonna be friends, of course. No matter what happens, you’re still my best friend. I’m gonna be there for you, you’re gonna be there for me like we always have. We’ll finish senior year, you, me, and Prompto.” He tells her, confident that they can work it out because the two of them, they’ve gone through worse and was able to pick things back up easily. Friends fight, but friends are still friends.

Mios smiles and nods, scoffing a little. When it counts, he’s always been so passionate.

“Things might get awkward sometimes.”

“That’s unavoidable.”

She laughs at that and nods.

“Alright…” She stands and pats the back of her uniform skirt of the dust and grass, Noctis following suit with his own uniform pants.

“Walk me home?” She asks, though a little shyly, a small blush forming. He’s walked her home before so it’s not like it’s a big deal but it’s different now.

“Of course.” He replies, though he tries to remain nonchalant, shoving his hands into his pockets as they both make their way to her apartment. The walk is awkward at first, the two of them trying to click again as they once did. Mios would usually talk nonstop about her day and Noctis would always be happy to listen but now? They’re just too afraid and nervous to talk to each other, let alone look at each other.

“How…How have you been though?” Noctis tries to start it off and Mios appreciates it.

It starts off rocky but slowly and eventually, they find the right rhythm again and it almost feels back to the way it was.

As they near her home and Noctis notices that Mios hasn’t said much in the past few minutes, he clears his throat, gaining her attention.

“Things might never be the same again,” he pauses, “and that’s ok. I’m just happy that you’re still my friend after all of this. I’m still going to marry Lunafreya, that won’t ever change no matter what I do but know that…” He stops for a second, picking his words carefully but also taking all of her in.

“Know that I love you and that won’t ever go away.”

She stares up at him and smiles, nodding. Mios moves to step in front of him, effectively stopping him in his tracks.

“I know that. You’re my best friend, that won’t ever change and I would rather die than cut you out of my life completely. It’s gonna take some time getting back into the groove of things again but…I’m going to work hard and catch up on that month we missed out together, ok?”

“Yeah, you have a lot of movies to catch up on with Prompto.”

They both laugh, missing when Mios and Prompto would always scream so loud at a cheesy jump scare and popcorn or whatever snack that was nearby would go flying and just be everywhere. She misses those days.

When she calms down from her laughing, she realizes how much of an awful friend she’s been to him and she sighs heavily, guilt taking over her entire being once more.

“I have…a lot of making up to do with Prompto too…”

Noctis puts his arm around her shoulders as they continue their walk home.

“Yeah, you do. But he’ll understand.”

They reach her front door and Noctis bids her farewell.

“Wait…Noct?”

“Hmm?”

She steps up and looks up at him, her eyes darting side to side, unable to meet his gaze. He can tell what she’s asking for though and he smiles, leaning down and capturing her lips with his, sharing a short but sweet kiss. He pulls away, though their lips are still touching, lingering as they know they want more but they can’t.

It isn’t a kiss that promises for more, rather a kiss to say goodbye. Goodbye to a chance of being together, of being happy. But as long as they can remain at each other’s sides as friends, then it’s ok. They’ll get through it together.

“I love you, Noct.”

“I love you, Mios.”

\---

It’s morning when Mios returns to school after the weekend and she sees Prompto and Noctis sitting at their usual spot in the sunny courtyard, looking down at their phones with intense expressions, most likely playing King’s Knight as usual. She takes a few breaths to hype herself up, afraid Prompto would yell at her or be mad at her the way Noctis was and she totally deserves it for being such a shit friend to him.

He texted her often and her aunt would always tell her that Prompto was asking about her and she was just so self-absorbed in her misery that she never gave him any thought. She has a lot of making up to do with him so, she holds her head high as she walks over to her friends.

Prompto looks up when he sees someone approaching him and Noctis and his eyes widen when he sees that it’s Mios, who scratches the back of her neck awkwardly and waves at him.

“Hey…Prom.”

“Mios.”

They don’t move or say anything else to each other, just her standing there before him, awkwardly, waiting for him to just yell at her or really, say anything to her. She sighs though and bows deeply.

“I’m sorry I’ve been a terrible friend, Prompto. Please…forgive me?”

As soon as she stands up straight, she is suddenly enveloped in strong arms, a body pressing close to her as she is embraced tight. Mios blinks in surprise but relaxes and hugs Prompto back, relieved that he isn’t mad at her.

Prompto was never mad, he was never angry at her or wanted to yell at her. He wasn’t frustrated or anything. He was just worried and he missed her but she’s here now, with him, in his arms and he’s just so happy.

“You owe me a bunch of movie nights.”

She can only laugh and nod.

He lets go of her and puts a hand on the small of her back, leading her back to where Noctis is sitting, unable to stop smiling as they all just sit with each other, talking and catching up on the month they missed.

Mios and Noctis’ gazes meet, a small blush forming on their cheeks but they just smile to each other, happy that things will eventually go back to being the way it was.

\---

Reconciling with Noctis and Prompto was not an easy feat. Reconnecting synergies, trying to get back into the groove of things was, to say the least, difficult after having been gone and out of touch for nearly a month but Mios was getting through it in the best way that she could.

They hung out as much as their work and study schedule would allow them to, they resumed holding their Friday movie nights, the whole shebang. It’s as if they are all glued to the hip as nowadays, you wouldn’t find one without the other two. It was as if they were freshmen again when all they did was hang out with only each other.

Sometimes, Prompto wouldn’t be hanging out with them though, and sometimes, it would be awkward between Noctis and Mios. They would hang out at his place, doing homework or relaxing, and sometimes, they would sit a little too close to each other. Mios would lay her head on his shoulder, he would wrap an arm around the both of hers. Sometimes Mios would stop studying and Noctis would stop scrolling down his feed on his phone, look up at each other, share a short, sweet kiss, and resume what they were previously doing, with a satisfied smile and a small blush.

And then are unable to say anything else to each other because internally, they’re too elated and awkward to say anything.

It wasn’t often that they did this, in fact, it was very rare. But, they were always testing the waters, swimming far past the line and out onto open water.

They shouldn’t be doing this, they told each other that it was only going to result in the both of them being hurt. But even if they can’t be in an actual relationship with each other, doesn’t mean that they both can’t be affectionate friends, right? That was their excuse, their reasoning in to thinking that this was ok.

Despite the innocent kisses and the closer than usual snuggling, they never took it any farther than that, a silent agreement that they would never cross that line, knowing that in the end, they’ll be hurt in the process. Mios viewed the act of making love as a sacred thing between a couple, married or not, while Noctis justifies it by saying that he wants his first time with Lunafreya.

Somehow, they were making whatever it is that is between them work with what they can, though but Mios doesn’t let that deter her from her studies for school and her duties at the Citadel. The end of Senior year is quickly approaching and that meant everyone is scrambling to get their university applications out, applying for trade schools, or booking far away trips with their friends. In addition to graduating, everyone is just gunning it for their big, bright future they have planned for themselves.

For Mios, she’s going to work her way up the ranks within the Circle in hopes of eventually becoming a coven leader herself. Noctis has his engagement and duties as the future king of Lucis ahead of him. Prompto is going to turn his photography hobby into a career, hoping to be the head photographer at a renowned magazine or something just for him but all in all, he just wishes to remain by his friends’ side.

As the year approaches its end, the three friends have spent less and less time with each other, too busy with studying and work to have any sort of time to spend with each other and Prompto absolutely hates it. He understands that they are all busy with all sorts of things but it’s also healthy to just step away from it all and just be together. Be nothing but friends hanging out, watching too many scary movies, lounging around with all of the lights off in the living room, and have incredibly deep talks about each other and the future.

And Mios and Noctis completely agree with him.

“I wish we can go on a trip instead…” Mios laments, unrolling her sleeping bag on the floor of Noctis’ apartment to lay claim of her territory. Both Noctis and Prompto hum in agreement, wanting nothing more than to travel but Mios has an upcoming assignment within the Circle and Prompto still has his Self-Defense classes to finish.

“Maybe after we graduate or something. We can all go.” Noctis suggests, though half-heartedly as he knows that leaving Insomnia is a long and difficult process. Even if he is the king’s son, he still must go through the inspection process just like everyone else, even more so due to his status. Mios and Prompto jump up at that, extremely excited, looking like two little kids and Noctis just laughs at the sight. He doesn’t want to get their hopes up but judging by their looks, he can’t necessarily go back on his word.

They begin to settle in for movies when there’s a scratching sound at the door and instantly, they all recognize it. Mios’ heart drops as Noctis goes to the door, opens it, and allows an excited Umbra to run in.

When Noctis comes back to join his friends in the living room, Prompto giving the dog so much love and affection every time he sees him, he glances over at Mios, who tries to hide her heartbreak with a feigned smile, offering pets to Umbra as well. He can tell it’s hurting her, all of this. They can have all the fun they want, sneak as many kisses as they can, tell each other ‘I love you’ every night, but Umbra only serves as a physical reminder that all of that, will never be theirs. Once he gets married, all of that will be between him and Lunafreya.

They keep telling each other that’s as far as they’ll ever go, to protect themselves and each other from getting hurt but no amount of reassuring words would ever protect them from the actual hurt that is reality. The reality of the situation where Noctis is getting married and it isn’t to her.

Maybe that’s why Mios didn’t like Lunafreya. She isn’t jealous of her, not one bit. She, just like everything else that is connected to her, serves as a constant reminder that Mios is nothing and that her place beside Noctis is only temporary.  

The dark thoughts and depressive spiral comes in full circle, nearly taking over her entire being before Prompto calls her name, pulling her out of her thoughts. Her wide eyes dart back and forth between Prompto, who is sitting close to her and, and Noctis, who is standing and hovering above them, eyes both filled with worry. The black-haired girl quickly feigned an embarrassed look, laughing awkwardly as she tells them she was thinking about her assignment that she’s so worried about. But she can tell neither of them bought it.

Noctis takes the journal out of Umbra’s carrier and leaves to write a reply in his room. Mios’ eyes follow his back and when he’s out of sight, she can’t help but sigh heavily through her nose and Prompto catches on.

He can’t do or say much to make her feel better but what he can do is be there for her. Slowly, but surely, he scoots even closer to her, offering his shoulder and Mios, though confused at first, smiles softly and slightly leans forward, resting her head on his shoulder as they both just give Umbra all the love and affection in the world, quietly.

Prompto knows about the strange relationship between her and Noctis. They had never told him but he did catch them share a kiss a few times when they thought he would be oblivious. It crushed him to know that they had a relationship like that, a relationship where he wasn’t with Mios, but he doesn’t want to jeopardize their little happiness in any way. To see his two best friends happy is more important to him than anything else in the world and he will always be there for them to lean on. Even if he’s hurt or exhausted, he’s there. But knowing Noctis and his loyalty to his father and Lady Lunafreya, this relationship will eventually end and whether or not Mios gets hurt by it in the process, he doesn’t know. But no matter what, he will be there for her.

Noctis sits at his desk, his heart warm with light and love as he reads Luna’s reply and the sticker she had attached. She tells him of her day, of how much she misses him and cannot wait to see him one day soon, of how much she loves him and hopes he is doing well with the friends he has told her so much about. Lunafreya always loves to hear about his day and his friends, how he’s doing in school and his training. She loves to hear about his progress and how much stronger he is getting and Noctis is always so willing to tell her these things, to show her that he is growing and to be someone that she can truly rely on. Someone that will be there for her, protect her, love her with his entire being as long as he lived and after.

And that’s when his heart breaks as he realizes, he can’t be that person for her. Not when he harbors such a love for Mios as well. Mios is here and Luna isn’t and the more he thought of that, the more he thinks that his love and physical affection could just be that he misses Luna so much. His heart clenches when he thinks of her or a thought of her passes through his mind all of a sudden out of nowhere and he realizes that he misses her. He’s unbelievably happy when she writes back and so in love when he writes back but, those thoughts and feelings aren’t there when he and Mios share a kiss or tell each other their ‘I love you’s. How loyal and true can he be when he’s here doing that with someone he isn’t promised to?

Anyone can argue that an arranged marriage isn’t real love and that it’s ok for him to love someone who isn’t the one he’s arranged to marry. He hasn’t seen Luna in years and maybe she’s fallen for someone else too... But her words harbor so much love towards him that the likelihood of that is not possible. Yet, here he is, falling for someone else. 

He loves Mios, that much is true. But his love for her just isn’t on the same level as his love for Luna.

He writes back a reply, sticks a sticker onto the next page and closes it, only to just stare at the book as a whole. The entirety of their love is documented in this one book, evidence that it’s real and there. An item that serves as a constant reminder that he is hurting Luna by loving Mios the way he is and he sighs heavily, closing his eyes and bringing the book close to his face, the top edge touching his forehead.

Noctis returns and smiles softly at the sight before him but ultimately, feels guilt encroaching his heart as he knows that he is the cause of Mios’ hurt. She can disguise it as much as she wants but he’s known her for far too long. Tucking the journal back into Umbra’s pack, he opens the door for him and lets him out as the dog happily bounds away and out of sight.

He’s going to be loyal to her, he’s made his resolve. But when he turns to go back into the living room and his eyes meet Mios’ gaze, it crumbles, but just ever so slightly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> bOI OH BOI WE GOT THAT GOOD OLE ANGST THAT IS MMM SPICY  
> This chapter is actually the shortest as, originally, I was going to add more things but they were unnecessary to the main story so I'll just put them in the next chapter as a filler of sorts. 
> 
> Does it feel like the issue got resolved way too fast? It felt like it when I was writing and editing this but I didn't want to keep adding more in between for fear of confusing everybody and myself and dragging it out way too long. Oh well, here's to hoping! 
> 
> The next chapter will be out relatively soon and it will be a short chapter as well since it focuses on prom and then a time skip to graduation! 
> 
> Thank you so much for reading this far and as always, comments and kudos are always appreciated <3


	7. Bittersweet

 “Mios, you…want to be my date for prom?”

Three sets of wide eyes stare at the terribly shy classmate of theirs. They were just sitting at their usual spot in the courtyard, passing around notes and getting Noctis to tutor them on their upcoming exam when a young man from their class approached them.

“Oh…Tremens, that’s so sweet of you but…” She stands in front of him, not wanting to be rude by sitting, but it’s awkward nonetheless.

“I’m…going with someone else?” 

If she didn’t make it any more obvious that she is lying then the poor boy is not only terribly shy, but incredibly dense. She doesn’t want to hurt his feelings but at the same time, she had never really been friends with him. They only share two classes together and in both, they sit next to each other and have been grouped up in group projects but Mios never really went out of her way to befriend him.

Noctis and Prompto on the other hand, had no idea who this guy is and they suddenly felt incredibly over protective of their friend, giving the stranger quite scrutinizing looks. They don’t mean to of course but it’s just, they were planning to ask Mios to prom…eventually of course if they hadn’t just forgotten that it’s right around the corner.

Under the watchful eyes of her two friends and her own apologetic ones, Tremens’ fluster only worsens and he begins to stutter and panic.

“A-ah, I see. Well…I-I hope you h-have fun with them th-then and s-s-see you there?”

She nods, giving him an apologetic smile and watches him as he quickly scurries away. Once out of sight, Mios sighs heavily and turns back around, unaware of the very relieved looks that belong to her friends. Even though the prospect of a new opponent arriving has been dashed, Prompto can’t help but ask.

“Soooo, who’s your date?”

Mios perks up.

“Hm?”

“For prom?”

“Oh! I don’t have one. I just…felt really bad for saying ‘no’ so I made up a lie but now I feel even worse.  I should have been honest with him in the first place…” Mios laments, playing the events of the past over again in her head but with different tactics, trying to figure out all of the possible outcomes but no matter what she thought, the results are the same and that would be her just saying no to him.

Prompto nods and begins to formulate a plan on how to ask her.

Should he make it extravagant? Somewhere public where there’s a lot of people? Would she want something on the down-low instead? Would she even want to go with him?

Prompto mentally shakes his head at the last thought, brushing it away. He wants to be happy and having thoughts like that only impedes on it.

Noctis, on the other hand, is on the fence about asking Mios. On one hand, he wants to go with her, ask her in the most beautiful and sentimental way, and give her an amazing night. However, he thought of his resolve to remain loyal to Lunafreya and Six knows how much more his guilty conscious can take. He had been distancing himself just a little bit from Mios, refraining from sharing kisses or being closer than friends would be and Mios has been taking the hint, though she isn’t the least bit offended.

He wants to take her, but in his heart, he can’t hurt Luna anymore.

“Who are you guys going with?”

Noctis just shrugs and crosses his arms over his chest. 

“Don’t know. Kind of a hassle in my opinion.”

She then directs her attention over to Prompto, who tries to hold her gaze with his own but is unable to.

“Ah, don’t know for sure. Don’t think anyone would want to go with me, anyway.” He admits.

“Well, there’s practically a line out the door vying for the both of you so I guess, take your pick from that?” She suggests but judging by the way they look, that doesn’t seem to be a very likeable option.

“Or, we could just all go together as a group?”

“Group?”

“Yeah, just the three of us do the prom thing instead of separating because if someone asks you and you say ‘sure’, you’re most likely going to be lumped into their prom group than each other’s you know?” She explains, but quickly adds, “But that’s up to you.”

It feels like she had a point and Prompto doesn’t mind spending it with his friends. Plus, there wouldn’t be the risk of third-wheeling if someone beat him to asking her first, namely Noctis.

The prince, himself though, viewed it as a happy medium for him as he still gets to go to prom with Mios without putting his guilt and loyalty at stake. A bonus that he gets to be there at their first prom with his two best friends at his side.

“Why don’t we just go ahead and do that, then?” Prompto suggests, finding no point in waiting for suitors to ask him or for him to ask anyone else when this is the best option and the one he’s happiest with. Noctis nods with him as Mios looks up from her notebook, putting her pen down.

“Now?”

“Why not? No point in waiting.” Noctis suggests and he looks over to Prompto, who nods excitedly as the both of them each hold out a hand for her to take.

“Mios, do you want to go to prom with us?” They ask in convenient unison and look at each other in shock, laughing at the sheer coincidence of that happening. Great minds think alike and whatnot.

Mios just stares at their hands and scoffs.

“You guys are a bunch of nerds. How are we friends?” 

But nonetheless, she slips both of her hands into theirs and nods, a bright blush on her features.

“Yes, I will.”

\---

Like Mios said, there’s practically a line out the door to ask either Prompto or Noctis out to prom. If it wasn’t that, then it would be a love confession that they gently, but awkwardly declined every time. Mios, on the other hand, doesn’t experience this much as maybe one or two guys and one girl had come up to her and asked but she would decline as well, knowing that she’s going to prom with her two best friends anyway.

Do people resent her for being able to go to prom with the both of them? Of course. It actually isn’t fair but it’s not like she forced them to agree to go together or anything. She just suggested and they proposed so she doesn’t pay any mind to some hateful side glares. She gets them all the time and their affect just doesn’t bother her anymore.

It’s funny how things change so quickly. Before, everyone in their class had feared her for her powers and gift, practically praised the ground where Noctis walked and obsess unhealthily over him, and completely ignore Prompto’s existence.

Now? Mios has amazing friends and hasn’t been threatened in anyway, Noctis is more or less being treated like an equal instead of being gawked at or put on a pedestal, and the Photography club absolutely love their club president, including the rest of their classmates since Prompto is such a ray of sunshine.

Prom is arriving and neither Prompto nor Mios had their suit or dress just yet, causing Noctis to give them a bewildered look.

“So, am I the only one ready to actually go to this?”

Mios gives him a pointed look, crossing her arms.

“I literally have no reason to own a fancy dress.”

“Or a suit for me.” Prompto chips in, with Mios nodding in agreement. Noctis moves to place a hand on his hip, the other cupping his own chin as he look his friends up and down. He’s suddenly being very observant and quiet, which only proved to make his friends uncomfortable under his watchful gaze.

“Ok man, I know I’m pretty but like lay off.” Prompto jokes.

“Yeah, geez, take a picture or something. It’ll last longer.”

Noctis’ eyes move up and settle into a glare at the two of them, causing them to effectively shut their trap as he continues his gaze. Eventually, he pulls out his phone, taps on the screen a few times and brings it up to his ear.

Mios and Prompto exchange bewildered looks and when they try to say anything, the pointed glare came back but came with a hand that held up one finger, causing the two to share even more confused looks.

Finally, after a very mumbled conversation with whoever he was just on the phone with, Noctis puts it away and lowers his hand.

“You guys busy?”

“N-no?” Mios replies, albeit very hesitatingly. Prompto just shakes his head, rather cautious.

“Alright, we’re going to the palace for your fittings.”

Their eyes widen at realization and after exchanging a look of shock, they chase after the prince, telling him he doesn’t need to bother anyone about any sort of fitting, especially for them.

“Noct, you really don’t have to do this for us.”

“I was literally gonna go to the thrift store or something and find something there!”

“Yeah seriously, please, like how are we gonna be able to pay them back??”

“Is the King ok with that?”

“Is this allowed?”

They bombard him with all sorts of questions and pleas to cancel the whole thing in fear of being bothersome but Noctis just wouldn’t listen to them and eventually, his two best friends just fall silent and follow close behind him. They stop at a corner sidewalk and when a black, sleek car pulls up and stops in front of them, they each get in, Noctis and Mios in the back with Prompto up front. The driver had offered to open and hold the doors for the Prince and his friends but Noctis had shook his head, hating any sort of formalities and special treatment. The fitting he had arranged so suddenly for Prompto and Mios is him essentially using his special treatment to his advantage as usually, the royal tailors would need to know way ahead of time instead of so suddenly but, he knows that they would say yes to him and he’s alright with that. Because this isn’t for him, it’s for his friends who completely deserved something so nice and something that will last them a long time.

When they arrive at the Citadel, exiting the vehicle and make their way up the grand stairs, they are greeted by the secretary as well as two tailors in the main lobby.

“Be gentle with them.” Noctis tells the tailors as they each whisk away his two friends, Mios yelping in surprise and Prompto nearly tripping as they’re practically being dragged away against their will, leaving Noctis behinds.

He wants to visit his father while waiting for his friends get their fitting, though they work fairly quickly so he has a limited amount of time. Though once he starts moving in the direction towards where his father might be, he sees Ignis enter the room.

“Iggy.”

“Noct.”

He walks over to the Prince, worried that something is wrong but he doesn’t show it. Usually, Noctis never visited the Citadel unless it was important, he needed something in his room to bring back to his apartment, or King Regis himself would call for him and, unless he missed something in his notes, Ignis didn’t remember seeing anything stating that Noctis would be coming for a meeting with the King today. He wants to ask, but can’t bring himself to be so direct.

“What brings you to the Palace today?”

Noctis shrugs his shoulders, shoving his hands into his pockets.

“I set up a fitting for Mios and Prompto for their prom clothes and I was just gonna visit dad for a bit while I wait. You know if he’s busy?” He asks. Ignis is relieved that nothing is wrong but he gives the prince a look of dismay and Noctis understands immediately. He tries to hide the disappointment on his face but knowing how watchful his retainer is, he isn’t able to. He is lucky though that Ignis doesn’t say anything about it.

“His Majesty, the King has a whole day of meetings today…” Ignis explains, going through his papers to look for the King’s schedule but Noctis’ dejected look made his heart clench and he sighs heavily. He truly cares about him.

“But his current meeting is ending fairly soon and he’s about to have a couple of hours of break until his next meeting so if we make haste, we can catch him while he’s coming out.”

Noctis perks up at that and though he doesn’t express it quite visibly, he is happy to hear, grateful even, that his friend is willing to help him, and waits for Ignis to lead him to his father.

Eventually, Mios is ushered out of the tailor’s office and workspace and is practically shoved into the hallway, the door slamming close behind her. The door in front of her opens and in the same fashion, Prompto is shoved out as well, though he almost completely falls on top of Mios if it isn’t for the fact that he catches himself on the wall. He opens his eyes and meets Mios’ rather wide ones as he realizes how close they are, his arms practically trapping her in between him and wall. It takes him a moment but he pushes himself off the wall, giving her space as he apologizes.

“U-uh, sorry! Just didn’t want to fall on you, you know?” He explains, trying to laugh it off and Mios can tell he doesn’t want to speak about it anymore so she nods, awkwardly laughing it off as well.

They head towards the direction they think is the main lobby but after endlessly wandering around the many winding hallways and elevators, they finally admit that they’re lost.

“I haven’t seen one, not a single landmark I recognize and we’ve been wandering around this place for Gods know how long!” Mios seethes, frustrated and on edge that they’re going to get caught and get in trouble. It didn’t help that Mios refused to ask for directions, to Prompto’s dismay as he just follows her like the lost puppies they are.

Eventually, a guard on patrol had turned the corner and sees the two students.

“Halt there!”

Mios and Prompto jump at suddenly being called and come face to face with the guard.

\---

“Sorry for meeting with you all of a sudden, Your Majesty.” Noctis tells him, addressing him formerly in front of his many councilors but Regis doesn’t miss the disdain his son has towards them as if they weren’t there, he could comfortably call him his father. But Regis is happy nonetheless that his son is visiting him, despite how little time he has.

“Nonsense, I am always ecstatic to see you, my son, despite how little it may be.”

Regis dismisses his council, and walk the halls with his son and his adviser.

They make small talk, Regis mainly asking how school is and how he’s doing at his apartment and Noctis replying while Noctis would ask how things are at the Citadel and if he, himself, is doing alright, always worrying about his father’s health. Regis only tells him to not worry and that he is fine.

Noctis highly doubts it though, seeing his ageing father only serves to remind him how little time he actually has with him so, making these small visits whenever he can, are always nice and he knows his father enjoys them as well.

They continue to speak, making their way to the King’s private office when a guard appears, followed by Prompto and Mios, who both have shamed, looks on their face.

“Your Majesty, I found these two wandering the halls and they claim to be looking for you.”

“No, I said we were looking for the lobby, not the King.” Mios grumbles, calling the guard an absolute dunce under her breath, only to be elbowed by Prompto to get her to shut up, knowing that she is being rude in front of the King and that he didn’t want to see her and the guard get into another yelling match.

Noctis slumps his shoulders and give his friends an incredulous look, as if saying ‘are you kidding me?’ as the King only dismisses the guard. He gives a curt nod and turns to leave, not before he and Mios glare at each other.

“You guys could have just waited in the lobby, y’know.”

“We couldn’t find it!” They cry out in their defense wondering why or where the heck the maps are in this huge place. They quickly realize who they’re standing in front of and bow deeply, apologizing to the King, who only smiles and waves it off.

“Please, do not worry. The Citadel is rather large and sometimes, I too, find myself estranged in the halls.” Noctis nods in agreement as his friends become relieved and politely laugh at the King’s joke. Mios and Prompto are now included in the little party of five, walking with the King to his private office, speaking with him formally about school and their training. Mios would share a story about Noctis to Regis, Prompto chiming in from time to time and would laugh whenever Noctis would tell them to shut up and come back with an embarrassing story about them of his own.

Regis found this enjoyable, seeing his son have such good friends by his side, friends who clearly care about him a lot, warms his heart and puts him at ease. The one thing he was always afraid of for his son, was that no one would treat him as an equal and ostracize him for his royal status but his worries are no more as he sees that his son had managed to attain true friends and that always makes life a little less lonely to experience.

“Well, I must be off. There are a few things I must work on before my next meeting.” Regis tells them, thanking them for walking with him. He puts a hand on Noctis’ shoulder and gives it a reassuring squeeze.

“Take care, my son. I am happy to meet with you any time.”

Noctis nods and smiles, lifting a hand up to lay it over his father’s.

“You as well, father. Don’t push yourself too hard.”

\---

A few days has passed and in that time, the trio of friends try to figure out plans for prom, that is literally happening the next night. They hang out on the roof top, Mios having finally put the lawn chairs out, the porch umbrella, and the little signs that says ‘King’ and ‘Guard’ on the back of the seats, to Noctis’ delight. It’s the first time Prompto has been up there, feeling honored to be allowed in a place that is considered Mios and Noctis’ special place. Mios was lucky to have found another lawn chair, in pristine condition, and had added a sign for Prompto, giving him the ‘Guard’ sign and making herself as the ‘Mage’. They had arranged the seats in a circle of sorts, as they go over their plans to make sure everyone is on the same page.

“Ok, so, we meet at Noct’s apartment at around 4:30 and get ready there and that gives me enough time to get make-up done there. I’ll just do my hair here. Iggy will come to pick us up by 6 in the Regalia, by the way, make sure to remind me that I need to write a thank you letter to the King for letting us use it, we head to that fancy restaurant and get there a little before 6:30, have dinner, and leave at around 7:30-ish? Depending on how busy the restaurant is, and then, we should-“

Noctis puts a hand over hers and squeezes, causing her to look up to her rather overwhelmed friends.

“You have got to relax, we have the plan practically etched in our minds.”

“I can literally recite it in my sleep.” Prompto tells her, to which she sighs heavily.

“I just…want prom night to be perfect. Once we graduate, who knows how much time we’ll get to spend with each other so I want to end our senior year with a bang, y’know?”

Noctis and Prompto do, in fact, know and aren’t denying that Mios is right. Once they graduate, Mios will be eligible enough to join the Crownsguard full time, Noctis will be focusing more and more on his royal duties, while Prompto has his self-defense training and will have more time to spend at the gun range to work on his aim.

“Growing up doesn’t have to mean growing apart, y’know. We’ll still be friends and we’ll still hang out like we always do, just a little less frequently is all.” Prompto tells her, seeing that he managed to relieve her.

They sit in comfortable silence when Noctis’ phone pings, signaling a message for him.

“Oh hey, your outfits are ready.”

Prompto and Mios jump up instantly at that, incredibly excited at the prospect of getting to try on their new clothes.

“What are we waiting for!? Let’s go!” They cheer excitedly, bounding towards the fire escape and scaling it down to get back into Mios’ apartment through the window.

Noctis stays behind for a little while, admiring the special hang out, when it used to be just his and Mios’ and now Prompto. He has this upsetting feeling that this might be the last time he’ll be up here for a while so, he pulls his phone out and takes a picture of the three lawn chairs, the porch umbrella, the little table in the middle.

“Noct, c’mon!”

One last look.

“Coming.”  

\---

Noctis waits for his friends to get dressed, with the rough assistance of the tailors. He sits on a couch that faces a pedestal and across from him, are three paneled mirrors, with dressing rooms on either side of the mirror, rather large ones so that a few tailors at a time can be in the room with them for adjustments and to help them put it on.

Prompto is out first, donning a regular but very fitting black suit with a white button up underneath the coat and black tie. He steps up onto the pedestal and is awe struck at how amazing he looks.

Noctis catcalls him, causing the blonde to strike a pose of confidence.

“Dude, I look hot af, no lie.”

Noctis rolls his eyes at his friends but is happy for him nonetheless.

The door opens on the other side of the mirror and when Mios steps out, Prompto and Noctis are completely and utterly floored.

Mios dons a sleeveless mermaid dress with a mandarin collar, black with gold trim at the bottom hem of the dress and at the top hem of the collar. It hugs her body tight, showing off her curves but she is able to move comfortably as Prompto steps down from the pedestal and is ushered to stand on it by the tailors.

Mios didn’t understand the quiet reactions from her friends, thinking that they may find her hideous but when she is up on the platform and she finally sees herself, she, too, is completely floored.

“Oh, my gods, I…”

She turns a little, checking out every angle she could of the dress and her shocked expression brightens up with a wide smile.

“I look hot af!”

She turns and gasps excitedly when she sees Prompto in his suit and squeals excitedly, ushering him over to where she stands so she can see them in the mirror.

“Oh, my gods, we look amazing!”

Mios pulls out her phone and begin to take mirror selfies and regular ones with Prompto in their new clothes and all Noctis can do is watch, happy that he was able to do this for his friends who deserved so much. This is the least he can do.

Prompto and Mios look back at the prince and encourage him to come over so they can take pictures together, to which he reluctantly agrees to.

“I look like a commoner compared to you guys, you look like you live here.” Noctis jokes, to which they laugh and make silly faces at.

“Ah, yes, we must act kindly to the commoners.” Mios fakes a posh accent, standing tall and acting dramatic and Prompto joins in.

“Yes, Princess Mios, we must interact with those of common wealth so that we may better understand them, mmm yes.”

“Mmm indeed, Prince Prompto.”

Noctis rolls his eyes and elbows them in the side, causing them to laugh.

“Alright, that’s it, get out of my house. And I definitely don’t sound like that.”

Regrettably, they give back their clothes as there are final adjustments that need to be made in order for it to fit absolutely perfectly and will be delivered to Noctis’ apartment in time for their arrival to get ready.

As they leave the Citadel to be driven back to their homes, Mios gives Noctis an unexpected hug, to which he returns, holding her tight.

“Thank you so much for the dress, Noctis.”

When she backs away, Noctis and Prompto bump their forearms together.

“Yeah, thank you so much for the suit, man.”

“Honestly, you really didn’t need to do that for us.”

Noctis shakes his head and smiles warmly at them.

“You guys are my best friend and been there for me this entire time. I just want to pay you guys back for that and honestly, this is the least I can do.”

They smile and thank him a few more times before they get into the car and are each taken home for the night.

\---

The day of prom arrives and at around three in the afternoon, Mios is stationed in front of her body mirror in her room, hair curler in hand as she begins the long process of curling her long hair. Thallassius wishes she could see her off for prom but the shop always needs her attention and if it wasn’t for the promise of pictures, she would have closed it for the day. Luto is happy to see his little sister excited for prom as he remembered his own prom experience and how happy and excited she was for him, dressed in a gray suit with a black undershirt, something their father had left behind for him. He leans on the frame of her bedroom door, arms crossed as they talk while she gets ready.

“Ground rules?”

Mios rolls her eyes and sighs but responds nonetheless.

“No drinking and driving, always have at least Prompto and or Noctis with me, don’t wander off by myself, don’t do anything I’m not comfortable with, and call you first for emergencies or if I want to go home early. Luto, I’m eighteen, not five.” She tells him, exasperated and pointing the end of the curling iron at him. “I think I know how to handle myself. Plus, I can literally set anyone I want on fire, ok? I don’t think anyone with a brain is going to want to do anything stupid to me.”

He laughs at that, a deep rumbling from his chest more like, as he knows that his baby sister always means business and that she lives by her words literally.

“Yeah, yeah, I know. I’m just telling you because I’m your big brother and I have to make sure you’re safe.”

Being forced to grow up so fast and soon made him feel like he needed to be a father figure for her but sometimes, he needed to remember that he isn’t her father and needs to be her brother, first and foremost.

“I love you, Lu, but please trust that I will be fine, ok?”

He sighs but nods.

“Alright, I do.”

“Good.”

“Well, I’m gonna head out for now. Meeting Nyx and them for some last-minute mission briefing and then gonna get drinks.”

She hums her response and he pushes himself off the wall, heading towards the door.

“Be safe!” He calls.

“You too!” she responds and then, she had the apartment to herself.

She’s done curling her hair by four and scrambles around to grab her make-up essentials, emergency supplies, both first aid and beauty, her black satin 6-inch pumps, a change of clothes for after prom if they’re planning to go or not since there’s one being hosted by Prompto’s ex-girlfriend from junior year, and her sleepover bag, planning to stay at Noctis’ apartment for the night.

She takes a picture of herself, using her phone to mostly cover her nose and mouth and sends it in a group chat she’s in with Prompto and Noctis. On her way out, she grabs two clear boxes containing boutonnières for her two dates. She had them custom made by the florist that works right next door to her aunt’s shop and the fact that it was discounted made it even better.

For Noctis, she had his made with a Sylleblossom, knowing that he thinks of Lady Lunafreya in Tenebrae and she doesn’t mind. She knows that she and Noctis would never be together the way Lady Lunafreya and he will be and overtime, she has come to accept it better and better. All she wants is for her friend to be happy and she hopes that he will be happy with this. For Prompto, she had his made by using a sunflower, though on a way smaller scale as he is literally, her sunshine. As she and Noctis had ceased their sneaky kisses and snuggling, she and Prompto had grown closer and somewhere deep in her heart, she is sure that she is developing feelings for Prompto but she doesn’t want to pursue them when their senior year is ending so soon and Gods know they don’t need any more drama.

As she locks the door to the apartment behind her, she feels her phone buzz and sees a picture of half of Noctis’ face in front of a rack of dress and suit bags hanging in his closet, followed by a picture of half of Prompto’s face as well, wearing his glasses, ear buds in, and riding the bus.

**[Mios]**

_Glasses?_

**[Prompto]**

_Gonna put in new contacts at Noct’s. Old ones dried out._

**[Noctis]**

_Just make sure to do that in the bathroom. I don’t want to see you literally touching your eyeball._

**[Prompto]**

_THAT’S NOT HOW CONTACTS WORK YOU LITERAL TRASH BAG._

She laughs to herself at seeing the text as the bus pulls up and she boards, handing money to the driver. Mios loves to stare out the window when she’s on the bus, loving the change in scenery and the people passing by. Though, the rundown area that she lives in drastically changes and disappears when she crosses over to the more nicer areas of Insomnia and it just shows her how much her own economic status differs from her two friends. She tries to never let it bother her but it bothers her a little bit every once in a while. It’s not like she’s unhappy in anyway, she just knows that she and her family have to work a little harder to make ends meet.

Does she resent her friends for their relatively easier life? Of course not, as she knows they have their own sets of problems, their own demons to deal with so she doesn’t compare as not all situations are the same.

Eventually, she makes it to the area where Noctis’ apartment building is, though a little later than usual, walks a little further down the street and soon, she uses the key that Noctis gave her and Prompto to open the door and the first thing she hears is a loud,

“Get your fucking tongue away from my eyeball.”

“C’mon, Noct! You won’t let me touch it with my hands what else am I supposed to do?”

“Not touch it?!”

She rushes in and soon, sees a pinned down Prince struggling to hold his friend back from being anywhere near his face and Prompto just giving him a hard time as he would never lick at the other’s eyeball. She laughs and it catches the attention of the two.

“Hey Mios!”

Noctis uses the blonde’s distraction as an advantage to push him off and scramble to his feet and runs into his room, slamming the door close to get away, Prompto just holding his gut from laughing so hard. Mios wipes at a tear in her eye from practically crying of laughter and when she calms down, she sets to work by pulling out a standing magnifying mirror from her bag as well as her make-up bag on the kitchen counter, setting to work quickly.

“Noct, you almost ready? It’s 5:25 and you know Iggy is never late!” She calls out, rubbing in her foundation, spraying a setting spray, contouring her cheeks, spray again, etc. Prompt is behind her changing into his suit, no need to fear that she would turn around and sneak a peek at him in his underwear. Though she can’t help but tease him even if she can’t see him.

“Nice undies.”

“No peeking!” He whines, quickly pulling up his dress pants.

The door to Noctis’ room opens and he’s wearing his royal suit, making him look absolutely handsome and ready to take the throne and rule the lands as their next king. Mios peeks over and she and Prompto both catcall him, going back to what they were doing.

“I know, I know, I look hot af.”

“You said it, girl.” Mios replies a little flatly, trying to concentrate on her make-up, followed by a snap of the fingers by Prompto.

He stands next to Mios, watching her cake her face and gives her an incredulous look.

“You ask me if I’m ready yet here you are still putting on make-up?”

“I will pin you down and put lipstick on you, don’t even play.”

He scoffs and lays out her dress bag on the couch and unzips it, making it readily available for her to put on.

As soon as she finishes her make-up, she jumps off the barstool, grabs the dress, and rushes into the bathroom and then, there is a knock at the door.

“Mios, Iggy is here!” Prompto calls, tying on his tie and greeting the man he has kindled a friendship with due to the many times that Ignis visits Noctis and Prompto is usually over.

Mios comes out of the bathroom, her heels clicking against the tile and seeing her in the beautiful dress, along with her make-up and hair done, it made her look like a goddess in Prompto’s eyes. Even Ignis appreciates her looks for a moment, marveling at her beauty.

“I must say, Mios, you look absolutely stunning.”

“Thank you, Iggy.”

They go down to the car but not before Prompto insists that they take a picture. He scouts their immediate surroundings for a second and finds a favorable spot in front of the apartment complex’s fountain, taking a picture of just the three of them first, courtesy of Ignis, and then another one that is in the style of a selfie with Ignis included.

Dinner at the rather fancy restaurant that Ignis had recommended to them was a divine experience for Mios and Prompto, never really having any reason to go to such an upscale place for food but, it’s being all paid for by the King, who encourages them to have the most enjoyable evening. The entire time, they talk, laugh, reminisce about the past and gush about how good the food is. Prompt takes this opportunity to take pictures of the restaurant itself as well as beauty shots of every dish they were served.

After dinner, they pile into the car and head towards a mansion that is mostly used for recreational purposes rather than living. It’s on privately owned property, surrounded by woods and a little far away from the city but the trail that leads to the front of the mansion is lined with thousands upon thousands of string lights, giving the area beautifully dim glow as patrons exit their vehicles, whether it be limousine or a regular, run of the mill car.

Ignis bids the trio farewell and once they exit the car, they begin to exchange flowers. Mios’ corsage was a two-team effort to come up with the design and what flower to go with but the end result is beautiful, a beautifully arranged bundle of white roses, babies breath, and leaves that fit securely around her wrist, while she pins the two boutonnieres to her dates’ lapels.

“Alright, let’s go in and make some bad decisions?”

“You bet.”

“Right behind you.”

Hours of partying, dancing, drinking the spiked punch and juice, having witnessed a student pull out a rather large flask from his coat and dumping the contents of it into the drinks set out for everyone, Mios needed to take a breather. She steps out of the ballroom, already breaking one of her brother’s rules and that was wandering around without either one of her dates but she’s alright, she’ll manage. Mios takes this time to actually look around the grand mansion, finding the main lobby to be relatively full of people talking, taking breathers as well, or taking pictures at the photo booths.

She decides to explore the mansion and finds that there is a balcony nearby that had a view of the extended party in the back yard of the mansion, where the vibe is definitely calmer and slower than inside the dim ballroom. She leans on the stone railing, enjoying the crisp air of the night against her skin and she shivers slightly from it. But nonetheless, she enjoys the peace and quiet to herself for a few moments.

“Rather chilly out, isn’t it?” A man with a rather light but overconfident voice asks her, startling her a little as she looks at him. She doesn’t recognize him, finding that he dresses differently from the Crownsguard members who are here as security, any of the chaperones from school either. No, this man looks like he is dressed in all sorts of layers, donning a scarf and fedora, though his red hair is still mostly unkept under it.

She suddenly feels wary of the man that is blocking her only exit away from him.

“Yes, I guess I should head inside?” She tries to brush him off but he only moves to block her way further. Whether he is doing it on purpose or not is unknown to her.

“Hm, I guess you should. After all, the prince and his blonde friend are looking for a Mios, I presume?”

“You presume correctly and, who might you be?” She asks cautiously, unfair that he knows her name and she not his. He takes the hat off and bows to her.

“The owner of this fine mansion and I believe you are in a restricted area of my home.”   He tells her, a smirk on his features and instantly, her suspicions mostly go away.

“Oh! I’m so sorry sir, I didn’t see any sign that indicated this to be off-limits.” She tells him, not wanting to be in too much trouble. He sighs heavily, shaking his head.

“Oh dear, I guess not all protocol was met as the Crownsguard were supposed to lay out those signs. Oh well, please do rejoin the others at the party and enjoy yourself.”

Mios bows quickly and rushes off to meet back up with her friends, leaving behind the smirking and intrigued owner of the mansion.

Once back in the lobby, she finds Prompto and Noctis, who worriedly asked her where she’s been.

“Guys calm down, I just went to get a breather and was on the balcony but it turns out to be a restricted area. Owner of the mansion caught me up there.”

Prompto’s eyes widen suddenly and he puts his hands on both of her shoulders.

“Mios, didn’t you hear? The owner of the mansion died like thirty years ago.”

Her eyes widen and her heart is hammering against her chest at the prospect of her meeting a ghost. The shocked look on her face causes Prompto burst out laughing.

“Nah, I’m just messing with you.” He receives a punch on the shoulder for that.

“No but seriously, yikes. I thought the owner was on some trip though. Guess not.”

Mios doesn’t want to lament on the issue any further and pulls them to go outside to the outdoor portion of the dance floor, where it’s calmer and the ambience is less sweaty.

As they sit at an empty table and talk, A group of people came up to Prompto, practically dragging him away and Mios deduces that it must be the Photography club members wanting to hang out with the club president.

A slow song suddenly plays and Noctis stands, holding his hand out to her, to which she takes appreciatively.

He leads her to the dance floor and slowly, they sway to the beat of the song. Mios doesn’t want to overstep her boundaries, leaving a small space between her and Noctis but, she can’t help but be weak and moves to lay her head against his chest, to which he moves to place his chin on top of her head.

“Do you think…we could have been happy?” Noctis asks her and she is shocked to hear him ask her this but she doesn’t move away from him, only closing her eyes and just feeling the beat of the song, swaying to it.

“I want to believe so but, so long as Lady Lunafreya is arranged to wed you, I don’t believe so.”

He hums in response and they don’t speak on the matter after, not wanting to open up any old wounds or create new ones.

Once the song is over, another slow song plays and Prompto comes back, to which Noctis passes her over to him and he goes off somewhere.

With Prompto, there is no hesitation, there are no boundaries that she would be scared of crossing or breaking. It’s just him.

They sway slowly to the music, Prompto loving the closeness they share as she rests her head on his chest. He has his lips and nose on her hair, inhaling softly and savors the closeness, the everything that is Mios. And he’s so unbelievably in love.

“Hey, can I tell you something?”  

“Yeah?”

“Back then, when you first moved here and everyone called you a witch and all those horrible things?”

She doesn’t answer, but nods against him.

“I tried so hard to prove to everyone that you weren’t. I told everyone that you would never hurt anyone but I got too scared to go up to you.”

Mios smiles at that and laughs a little, although breathily.

“Scared of me?”

“No, scared of losing you.”

“How were you going to lose me if we didn’t know each other?”

“I was scared that you wouldn’t believe me, that you didn’t think I would ever be your friend and you would just isolate yourself off more and I couldn’t risk that, losing you before having you.”

She stops, causing him to as well and she looks up at him, eyes wide.

“Prompto, I would have loved to be your friend back then.”

He smiles at that and places a hand on her cheek.

“I know that now.”

His face inches closer and closer to hers and she’s hoping that deep down, he would kiss her. But at the same time, there is a fear that things might be complicated as, though she may have developed feelings for Prompto, she still harbors such strong feelings of love towards Noctis. And he sees this. His heart breaks a little but he doesn’t show it as he moves to lay a kiss on her forehead and the soon, the song comes to end and the faster songs come back.

“Thanks for being my friend, Mios.”

She smiles, relieved and hugs him tight.

“Thank you as well.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wee woo wee woo actual garbage man alert. I made it pretty obvious who the supposed "owner of the mansion" is.  
> Anyway this chapter took a little longer than I thought as I added more to this than thought. It has a good mix of mostly being comedic and more serious towards the end. 
> 
> I also decided to take out the scene of the graduation as it wouldn't really be anything special or add to the story. I might add it as a side story though later down the road, who knows :/  
> Oh! I made a playlist that goes with the story so you can hear the chapter titles in the song since they're lyrics and the prom songs that Prompto, Noctis, and Mios dance to (spoiler, I nearly cried writing Prompto dancing with Mios to the song meant for them)  
> [Playlist here. ](https://soundcloud.com/yuhime-saito/sets/share-this-precious-life-with/s-P8S43%20)  
> [My design of Mios' prom look. ](http://78.media.tumblr.com/7d5762d9cbdcda403bb8d40347009faf/tumblr_inline_p3al7915hl1uqufkg_500.jpg)
> 
> I apologize if this chapter seems rushed a little at the end but I was already at the 7k mark so I just ended it the best that I could.  
> next chapter will be a time jump of two years and be set on the day that Noctis leaves with his friends for Altissia but the main pov will belong to Mios as she experiences the things that happen in the Kingsglaive movie so, warning spoilers, sort of, for those ahead? 
> 
> Thank you so much for reading this far and as always, kudos and comments are always appreciated <3


	8. If I Wasn't So Afraid of Words

“Ms. Siviola, His Majesty, the King, would like to speak with you in his private office.”

Mios perks up at that, though rather quizzically as her widened eyes meets the tired gaze of a messenger. She looks towards her coven leader, who only nod as she gets up from where she is sitting and follows closely behind him, pulling her robes on. Any need to visit the King only requires one to look their absolute best, after all.

What could he possibly need? Was she in trouble in anyway? Her heart stops suddenly.

What if he found out about her and Noctis? Is that what this is about? Now her heart is hammering against her chest, as if she was caught doing something she wasn’t supposed to and Aunt Thal found out but this is so much worse because it’s the King, himself! Noctis would just get a slap on the wrist and be sent off but Mios? She could be executed and it wouldn’t matter. But he isn’t like that though, right? He views her as a daughter of his and she views him like a father of hers so there’s no way he would execute her or exile her or have her entire existence erased, right?!

No, that’s impossible. She and Noctis haven’t spoken to each other much of late, two years to be exact. Ever since graduation, Mios never had any sort of free time, being eighteen years old, she was able to join the Crownsguard full time and worked to serve the people and her King as well as balancing her duties within the Circle. They never did get to go on that senior trip that Noctis promised but it wasn’t his fault, rather hers for being gone all the time. Now, she, Noctis, and Prompto are twenty years old and working hard for bigger and better things but, that hard work only sacrifices the time they get to spend with each other like they used to.

Of course, they text and meet for lunch when she can but it’s so few and far in between. She misses her friends, but as they grow older, their focus shifts and so does their time as all Mios ever does now is work at the Citadel, go home, sleep, wake up, and do it all over again.

Mios is way too into her rapidly spiraling thoughts that she doesn’t realize that they are at the door leading into the office already.

“Miss?” The messenger calls, worried as the girl looks as pale as a ghost. Mios shakes out of her thoughts and clears her throat, recomposing herself as he knocks on the doors and hears King Regis’ voice, allowing entry.

Standing in the office before her king is absolutely nerve wracking, standing in front of such a man that commanded so much respect and power. She’s holding her breath, even as she curtsies before him, and stands tall.

“Mios, please have a seat.”

She nods, gulping, and takes a seat as commanded as she waits for the true purpose of this meeting.

There is a silence between them for some time until finally, he speaks.

“You are aware that the morning of tomorrow, Noctis and his retinue will be leaving for Altissia so that he and Lady Lunafreya can wed?” He asks and though her heart hurts, she doesn’t show it as she just nods.

“Yes, I am aware.”

“Then, you do know that you will not be going with them.”

Her shoulders drop at that, feeling her heart sink but she nods, although sounding even more dejected.

“Yes, I do, Your Majesty.”  

The dejection in her voice doesn’t go undetected and the king sighs heavily. He’s known Mios ever since she was a small child, views her as a daughter of his in fact but he knows that like him, she cannot ignore her duties for pleasure. Her look of disappointment reminds him of the shocked and angry one his son bore when he had told him that Mios would not be going to Altissia with him. Although Noctis knows that even if he could convince her in any way to come with him, Mios would deny the offer, knowing that she must stay.  

That is why, in exchange for her staying, he will tell her the truth.

A truth that no one but him knows.

Because at the end of all of this, he knows that he will die and the treaty signing between Niflheim and Lucis is all but a ruse in order to take the crystal and ultimately, kill him. Mios will be there for it all as a member of the Crownsguard and the Circle, protecting the people and evacuating them if he is correct and it is unfair to her for sending away Noctis with his retinue in order to protect him from the impending fall of Insomnia but have her stay. She could be far away from all of this with his son, giving him more numbers for better protection but at the same time, he needs her here as well for a mission of her own. So, he must tell her, unable to hide this truth from her so that she may live to see Noctis once more.

All while being told of the King’s suspicions and predictions, Mios is overwhelmed by it.

“And though I may or may not be correct in any of this, the fact remains that I must go through with this signing, for the good of my people.”

Mios stands suddenly, the chair skidding against the ground as she slams the palms of her hands on his desk, clearly distraught and angered but Regis doesn’t react, expecting this even.

“No…No, you can’t just…be ok with this! What you are saying may be mere speculations but, at the same time, we can do something about this! We can take Niflheim by surprise and-“

“Further worsen the already strained relations of the two countries. Accusing them of something that is being speculated without any sort of proof will only put my people in danger further. I am already forsaking their safety by sending Noctis away, I do not need to make them suffer even more.”

She jolts from his words and hangs her head low, staring at her clenching fists on his polished desk. She is angry, she is frustrated but overall? She is scared. For herself, for the people, and for him.

“Your Majesty…why are you telling me this?” It is but a whisper, to hide her trembling voice as she fights the urge to cry and shed tears before her King.

“Lady Lunafreya will be present on the day of the signing and if anything were to happen to me, I will be passing the Ring of Lucii along to her to pass to Noctis. In the events that I or, may the Gods forbid, Lady Lunafreya are unable to do so, the ring shall be in your possession and you are burdened with the duty to deliver it to Noctis.”

He doesn’t go in to great detail about the ring, only warns her to never put it on if it comes into her possession. But she doesn’t care about the righ, or Lady Lunafreya or any of this. All she cares about is the safety of the man who she viewed as a father. To know that he will die from all of this, is something she is having difficulty wrapping her mind around.

“Mios, please look at me.”

She does as she’s told, though now, she comes to face to face with him and the reality of the whole situation settles in and she is unable to hold back her tears. Regis gives her a sympathetic smile and lays a hand over one of hers, clutching it tightly to offer comfort.

“You have grown to be a powerful young woman, a mage that is born with a gift bestowed by the Gods and I am so proud to be able to say that watching you grow alongside my son has been a privilege and an honor.” His praise only serves to make her cry even more as her heart breaks for him. He sees the girl suffering and stands, grabbing his cane to walk around his desk and lay a hand on her shoulder.

“I thank you for remaining by Noctis’ side, I thank Thallassius as well for taking him in and treating him like a son of her own, just as I have treated you as a daughter of my own. I must ask you though, to please remain by his side for as long as you can.” He is almost begging but she isn’t sure as all she can do is nod, sniffling and trying to stifle her tears and sobs. Mios eventually calms down and holds her head high before her king.

“I promise, until the day I die. I will remain by Noctis’ side.” She is confident, proud, and completely willing to fulfill her duty as one of the King’s soldiers and as Noctis’ friend and he can tell by her resolve that she will keep her word.

“Please, do not share the details of our meeting to anyone else outside of this room, do you understand?”

She nods and watches as he hobbles back around his desk and to his chair.

“Your Majesty, may I ask…Is it possible for me to evacuate my aunt ahead of time? Tomorrow, even, as I know that the Treaty party is being held two days from now.”

It may seem unfair to the citizens of Insomnia, knowing that she has an advantage to prevent a loved one from being in the crosshairs of all of this but she must do what she can to protect her remaining family. She knows that Luto and her will remain here and she knows that they will live to see each other but she has already lost both of her parents, she cannot risk losing her aunt too.

Regis thinks on this for quite a bit but eventually, he nods.

“I will set up the arrangements to have her be moved far away from here to a place that I believe she will be safe. Please inform her when you do get home today but do not speak to her about anything I have shared with you.”

She sighs in relief and bows deeply, thanking him.

“Our meeting is adjourned but I will be seeing you soon. I know that your coven is assigned to act as security for the main doors along with two Kingsglaive members.”

Mios nods, remembering being assigned to this by their coven leader and she bows once more, leaving his office. But she doesn’t go back to the Circle hq, rather she hurries back home, needing her aunt to prepare for her departure.

\---

Mios bursts into her Aunt’s store, almost startling her.

“Mios? Sweetheart, what’s wrong?” She asks her niece, seeing the panic in her eyes and sensing that something is wrong. Mios begins to ask the few customers in her store to please leave, hurrying them as she practically shoves them out the door and locks it.

“Excuse me? What has gotten into you!?” Thallassius is worried that her niece had completely gone mad and comes around to the front of the counter to meet her in the middle of the store. Mios only grabs a hold of her aunt’s forearms, a look of panic and urgency in her eyes.

“We have to go home, now.”

“Why? Is Luto hurt?!” She begins to panic at the prospect of her nephew being injured in some way but Mios’ shaking head quickly dashes her worries on that prospect. She is being dragged against her will towards the door and enough is enough.

“Mios, let me go!” She yells, quickly shocking the girl out of her panic.

“Please, just calm down and talk to me.”

Mios takes a deep breath and meets her aunt’s watchful but worried gaze.

“Aunt Thal, we need to go home because you are moving, far away.”

Her aunt’s eyes widen and then, she bursts out laughing, startling and confusing the poor girl.

“Oh goodness, that has got to be the funniest joke you’ve told me all year.” Thallassius tell her niece but when she calms down from her laughing to see that Mios isn’t laughing, not even a little, her words truly begin to sink in.

“Mios, honey, please tell me you’re joking because what you are telling me is actually impossible.” Mios is unable to meet her aunt’s gaze, falling to only stare at her feet.

“I’m so sorry, Aunt Thal, but this is for your own safety. I…” Mios swallows what feels like a lump in her throat. “I can’t tell you exactly what it is but something terrible is going to happen in a few days and I can’t have you be here when it does.”

A regular person would demand answers, would not stand for suddenly being forced out of their home that they’ve lived in for so long, to lose their life’s work and be uprooted to a new place where they will know nothing, surrounded by no one but total strangers to fend for themselves.

But Thallassius isn’t a regular person and she’s fine with that because of her not-so-regular family. She had to get used to it when her brother and sister-in-law followed their passions despite what their parents were saying, begging them to have a regular job, and she had to get used to it again when she became the legal guardian for her niece and nephew and they grew up to directly serve under the King. She knows that Mios and Luto have a lot of secrets that they can’t share with anybody, that they must bare all alone. She feels helpless as their guardian whenever she sees the fatigue, the hurt, and the stress that is clearly evident in the both of them but she knows that they will never tell her of their stress in order to prevent her from worrying too much because that’s the last thing they want for their aunt.

“I understand.”

Mios blinks, her eyes wide with surprise at how easily her aunt took the situation.

“Y-you…you understand?”

The older woman smiles and wraps her niece into a tight embrace.

“Yeah, I do. I get it. Secrets and what not that you can’t tell little ole me.”

She pulls back from the embrace, gripping the other girl’s shoulders tight.

“Where ever I’m going, I know you and Luto will see me there. Everything in my body is hating this as your guardian, but I know that you have a duty to serve and protect the people and I won’t stop you from doing what you love.”

Mios couldn’t describe how utterly lucky she is to have her aunt, to have someone who won’t put her in a compromising position and break her promise with the King. Someone who believes in her and she can’t help but cry, knowing that she is doing all she can to protect this person that has sacrificed so much for her and her brother, two people who aren’t even her own children.

Thallassius chuckles and embraces the girl once more, rubbing her back and patting it.

“Let it all out, dear.”

Eventually, Mios manages to calm herself and pulls back, smiling and giggling slightly as she wipes her tears.

“Now, why don’t we go home and get me moving.”

\---

When Luto gets home, he sees that half, if not all, of his home is packed up into boxes and leaning against the walls of a mostly empty apartment. He thought he saw a moving truck outside but thought it was for someone else, not for his aunt.

His eyes are wide and he has absolutely no idea what’s going on.

“Aunt Thal? Mios?” He calls out but doesn’t get a response, just hearing muffled laughing and sniffling coming from his caretaker’s bedroom.

He makes his way over and when he opens the door, he sees his little sister sitting close to their aunt, on the floor and looking through a box of old photos. They look up and Luto sees that there are tears in their eyes, more so Mios than Thallassius.

“Hey Luto, come look at this old photo of mom and dad!” Mios tells him excitedly, holding the photo out for him to take and he does so, though hesitantly. When he looks down at it, his heart clenches immediately and he slowly sits, the photo taking his breath away.

“Do remember that?” Thallassius asks. “It was about a month or two before Mios was born but you were only five years old when your parents and I took you to see your first ever match at the coliseum.”

“Totomostro… We brought our own horns and everything since Mom said I was old enough for it now. Dad said that I wasn’t old enough to gamble though but he would place a bet for me.” Luto reminisces, feeling his heart clench as he vividly remembered that moment, being one of the few memories he had of his father. He chuckles, though airily.

“Mom was… so mad when she found out, didn’t want Dad to develop a gambling problem and for me not to gain one either. But our monsters won and I got to keep half of that gil and I spent it on a yellow baby onesie that had the ‘Totomostro’ logo on it for Mios.”

Mios’ eyes widen at that.

“Dad said ‘Why didn’t you buy something for yourself? We can always get your sister something when she’s actually here!’ but I just looked at him all naïve and pointing at Mom’s belly, saying ‘But she is actually here!’” He and Thallassius laughs at that, remembering how precious he had been when he was so small and not scarred by the loss of their parents.

“I…I can’t believe you’re the one who bought me that. That was my favorite onesie. Mom said I never got that one messy but practically destroyed the other ones.”

Luto looks up from the photo and smiles at his sister.

“Of course. You weren’t whiny or difficult whenever I was around but when I wasn’t, all you wanted was to be with me.” He explains, telling her about how he was the one who witnessed her first steps, her first word being his name, and that she was basically his shadow.

“Your mother and father were so worried Luto was going to get annoyed and maybe hurt you but I had to keep telling them that Luto loved his little sister so much, he would never dare.” Thallassius explains and sees that his niece is near tears from all of this reminiscing.

Finally, Luto asks what he’s been wanting to ask since he came home.

“So…why are we moving?”

Mios looks over to her aunt, back to her brother, and sighs heavily, standing up and walking towards the hall, Luto following close behind as his aunt resumes packing.

The two siblings lean against the wall opposite of each other, mirroring the other by crossing their arms across their chests.

“I talked to the King in to moving Aunt Thallassius far away, somewhere she will be safe. Something…Something bad is going to happen in a few days to the city…”

“I know.”

Mios looks up with wide eyes at her brother, confused as the King never mentioned speaking to her brother about what they had talked about. However, she doesn’t focus on that at all, mainly focusing in on her brother’s sudden stiffness, the tension in his shoulders, the angered but serious look on his face.

“You…know?”

“Mios, the Glaive is made up of mostly what kind of people?”

“Immigrants, refugees, people who have lost their homes because of the war.”

“Exactly, and His Majesty will be giving away the lands of their homes to the Nifs as per the peace treaty. Many members of the Glaive are not happy about that but I never thought any of it until a few nights go. I was out drinking with Nyx and Pelna and on the way back to the bar from the bathroom, I saw a Glaive, drunk off his rocker and spouting things about the Peace Treaty and how it’s all a sham.” He explains and she’s listening intently.

“I’m… sure it’s nothing, never mind.”

“No, Luto, not ‘never mind’. What did they say?”

Luto stares at her for some time and senses her desperation so, he sighs dejectedly, surrendering.

“He said something along the lines of ‘taking back what belonged to them.’ I don’t know what that means but…It doesn’t sit well with me. I haven’t told anyone though.”

Mios nods in understanding but finds that she’s unable to do anything useful with the information. She could tell the King but he already has so much on his already full plate, there’s no point in further stressing him out. It could just be the drunk babblings of a random citizen but still… She now understands what he meant as this information just doesn’t sit well with her.

“So, let’s say something bad is going to happen. Aunt Thal will be far away from here when it happens? Do you know where?” Mios only shrugs.

“The King only told me that she will be far away and safe but where at? I’m not sure…”

Luto nods and they remain in silence for a bit until he raises a hand to her, his pinky being held out for her and she smiles, hooking onto his pinky finger with her own.

“No matter what happens, we meet at home, ok? You still remember what it looks like?”

He doesn’t need to explain himself as she knows what he’s asking her. Her home far away from home, the home she was born in, the home she had her parents in. A home surrounded by water and life.

“I promise.”

\---

The rest of the night is spent packing the house of every piece of furniture and belonging into the moving truck and once they packed the last box in and Luto secures the door, the sun is peaking over the buildings, signaling dawn. The moving truck being manned by a Crownsguard member that Mios was not entirely familiar with but trusted nonetheless.

“May the Gods grant you safe passage to wherever it is you are going.” Mios tells her and she nods, taking this task seriously as she was personally enlisted by the King.

“For Hearth and Home.”

Mios turns to see Luto and Aunt Thal embracing each other and feels tears prick the corners of her eyes as she hears her tell him how strong he is, how brave and courageous he is, how proud she is of him and how proud his parents would be if they could just see him now, and how much she loves him. Despite the heartwarming scene, Mios can’t help but chuckle slightly, seeing how tall her brother is compared to their short Aunt.

When Luto lets go of her, though he lingers slightly, Mios practically jumps into her aunt’s arms, wanting to savor her touch as long as she could because who knows when the next time she’ll see her aunt again.

“My sweet girl. You’ve grown so beautifully and powerfully and I feel nothing but pride and love to have witnessed you grow into this wonderful woman. Your parents would have been so proud of you.” Thallassius tells her and feels the girl in her arms begin to tremble from holding her sobs in and the older woman can only smile as she, too, feels the tears she was trying to hold back begin to slide down her cheeks.

She would be lying to herself and the whole world if she said that she was the happiest person in the world when Luto and Mios were both unexpectedly dropped on her lap. Thallassius was relatively young still, single, alone, and barely able to afford to take care of herself and now she had to take care of two kids who weren’t even hers. No one would have been happy but as they grew, as she raised them all on her own, through many trials and tribulations, she’s grown to love her kids, to love her new life.

Because the things they’ve grown up to do, was all worth it in the end.

Thallassius wouldn’t have changed anything the moment they came into her life.

The woman looks at the both of them and places a hand on their cheeks, to which they hold gently, trying to remain strong.

“Promise me that… Nothing bad will happen to you, the _both_ of you.”

They only nod, afraid that if they were to speak, they would unleash the sobs they’ve been desperately holding back and Thallassius can see that.

“I love you, the both of you. And I don’t want to lose you too.”

“We love you, too.”

As they watch the truck leave and disappear from their sight, Mios looks up to the sky and realizes, with a heavy heart, that today is a day for goodbyes as she knows her best friends are leaving as well. Noctis and Prompto had tried asking her to hang out with them before they had to leave on their trip but she couldn’t, stating she was busy spending time with her aunt, though left out the part that she was leaving.

Mios checks her watch and finds that the prince and his retinue would be leaving soon so if she were to leave now, she would be able to catch them at the gate.

Luto had to leave in preparation of the treaty signing and party and Mios knows she should go to but she would rather die than say goodbye to her friends once more. The first thing Mios does is hop onto the first bus she can to the city gates.

The bus driver was wary of dropping her off at the city gates alone, but Mios reassured them that she’ll be fine and soon, she is left alone to wait, having spot the Regalia being guarded and looked over by the Gate keepers.

\---

A while longer than she anticipated but, she sees a sleek, black car pull up near the Regalia and Prompto all but throws the door open to rush towards her, holding her close in a tight embrace. Noctis follows suit in the group hug, though feigning reluctance. Mios sighs happily, not having seen her friends in a long while. She is happy that she’s able to see them one last time.

“I still... can’t believe you’re not going with us.” Prompto tells her in disappointment, wanting to spend even more time with her while on the road but she gives him a reluctant smile.

“I know, trust me, I want to. But, I have my duties as you all have yours.” She tries her best to remain upbeat and positive because crying in front of them will only make things harder and her ever so observant friends sees this and appreciates it so much. Prompto just embraces her tight, afraid of letting go even though he knows he has to, and he does, with actual reluctance.

“It is disappointing that you will not be able to accompany us but I know you will hold the fort down here in our absence.” Ignis tells her, giving her a short but gentle embrace as he’s grown to consider Mios as a dear friend. Gladiolus pats her on the shoulder before scooping her up into his arms, earning a yelp of surprise as she is literally whisked off her feet. But nonetheless, she will miss him dearly as well, knowing they’ve formed a deep bond through the metals of their weapons.

“Never hurts to throw in a pretty girl into the mix but I guess it can’t be helped.”

Mios blushes at that and tries to dismiss it with a ‘nah.’ As she never knows how to take a compliment but she appreciates it nonetheless.

“But I bet Iris will be happy to have a familiar face still around.”

Iris? She’s still here?

Mios tries to down play her shock on the exterior, not wanting to raise any questions. Mios and Luto got to move their aunt out of harm’s way so then, why doesn’t Clarus, the King’s Shield and close friend, get to move the rest of his family away? Gladio gets a free pass to leave and be away as his duty will always be protecting Noct but…what about Iris? His daughter? Does she not get to be moved ahead of time?

Mios deduces that maybe the King didn’t want to raise too much alarm by moving Iris away, as he would no doubt be questioned by Gladio and one thing will lead to another until eventually, Noctis will find out. This is what she tells herself to feel better about being able to move her aunt away but, the guilt still lingers and only grows at a slow rate. She just hopes that Iris will be ok.

Noctis is the last to say anything to her and the others can tell that they want to be alone so, they go to help Cor with packing the Regalia with their luggage.

The two are unable to form a word at first, giving each other awkward but longing glances until eventually, they both laugh softly from the ridiculousness of it all. Mios steps forward, her arms out and Noctis meets her all the way, the two friends embracing each other tightly.

“I’m gonna miss you so much.”

Mios tries not to cry but feels her voice quiver.

“You’re not gonna miss me that much. You’re going on this amazing trip with your best bros, get married to the beautiful Lady Lunafreya and have the happy ending you’re destined to have. It’s written in the stars.”

Noctis’ eyes widen at that and he pulls back from the embrace, though they are still holding each other.

“My…My promise to you. To see the stars and the moon when you came back.”

Mios feels tears prick at the corner of her eyes but try to keep them in check.

“You remembered.”

“Mios, I- I’m so sorry.”

“Nah, don’t be. This time, it’s my turn to promise that we will see the stars and the moon when you get back. This is no different from last time, only this time, I’m the one staying behind and you get to go on this amazing adventure.” She means it from the bottom of her heart, that she truly wishes that Noctis will have a grand time while away. He deserves it after all.

Noctis smiles and embraces her once more.

“I love you, Mios. I’m going to miss you so much.”

She is unable to hold the tears back anymore.

“I love you too. Just have a safe trip.”

There is so much she wants to tell him, so much she wants to say, to do. But she’s so afraid of her own words that she just can’t bring herself to say anything.

So, she can only smile sadly and wave them goodbye as the Regalia peels away and is out of her sight, along with her friends.

It’s time for her to get ready.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhh, this chapter was a little delayed as I took a small break to work and put out other works and things and then I didn't help it by rushing the end just a bit. It's also pretty oc heavy in the middle ;~; I was going to change a few things from the canon and say that Iris, Talcott, and Jared were moved out of the city ahead of time but I couldn't get it to work where it would make sense so threw that idea out the window :/ 
> 
> But! This is the end of part 1, meaning it transitions from Brotherhood, Pre-journey verse, into the main journey and I hope you'll continue reading as i have a lot of ideas that I can't wait to put out. 
> 
> Anyway, thanks for reading this far and as always, kudos and comments are always appreciated <3


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